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LIFESTYLE

70% Prefer 'Merry Christmas' Over 'Happy Holidays' on Store Signs

Holiday shoppers, as they have for several years, would prefer to be greeted with signs reading “Merry Christmas” rather than “Happy Holidays” this season.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of American Adults shows that 70% prefer that stores use signs that say “Merry Christmas.” Twenty-four percent (24%) disagree and would rather see store signs that read “Happy Holidays." (To see survey question wording, click here.)

These findings are basically identical to those found last year and have shifted little in surveys since the holiday season in 2006.

A majority of adults across virtually all demographic groups prefer “Merry Christmas," but men feel slightly more strongly about it than women do. Younger adults agree just as strongly as their elders.

Three-out-of-four white adults (75%) say they’d prefer “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays," and 61% of black adults agree. But among adults of all other races, 49% would rather see “Merry Christmas” on store signage, while 40% prefer “Happy Holidays."

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The survey of 1,000 Adults nationwide was conducted on November 20-21, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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