A new Gallup poll finds that fewer Americans will celebrate Christmas this year than before the pandemic, driven by a decline in people who consider it a religious holiday.
The polling company found that 90% of adults responding to a survey this month pledged to celebrate the winter holiday, down from 93% in 2019 and a new low since Gallup first posed the question in 1994.
In a summary of findings, the company pointed to a decline in the share of adults considering Christmas a “strongly or somewhat religious holiday” from 67% of adults in December 2019, the last time the company posed the question, to 58% this year.
“This is consistent with the decline in religiosity in the U.S., generally,” Gallup said.
Christians commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ on the annual holiday. By contrast, secular celebrations revolve around Santa Claus bringing gifts to children on Christmas morning.
This month’s Gallup survey found that most respondents planned to celebrate Christmas regardless of gender, income, age, political affiliation and education. According to the polling company, that reflects the holiday’s traditional status as “a unifying event.”
At the same time, only 78% of non-Christians planned to indulge in the festivities this month, compared to 95% of self-identified Christians.
The findings come as religious affiliation and practice in the U.S. have dipped to new lows. In 2020, Gallup reported that U.S. church membership fell below a majority for the first time in eight decades of public opinion surveys, as 47% of adults said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque.
Gallup conducted a randomized national telephone survey of 1,003 adults on Dec. 2-18. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
