PPP’s annual holidays poll finds that it’s really only Trump voters who get offended about the ‘Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays’ debate. 23% of Trump voters say they’re offended by the phrase ‘Happy Holidays,’ while only 3% of Clinton voters say they’re offended by the phrase ‘Merry Christmas.’ In fact there are actually slightly more Trump voters- 6%- who say they’re offended by ‘Merry Christmas.’ Overall just 13% of voters are offended by ‘Happy Holidays’ and just 4% are offended by ‘Merry Christmas,’ suggesting this issue perhaps gets a little bit more attention than it deserves.
70% of Clinton voters say they don’t care whether people say ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Happy Holidays,’ and among those who do care they actually choose ‘Merry Christmas’ 23-7. On the other hand only 25% of Trump voters say they don’t care about this issue- 66% prefer ‘Merry Christmas’ to 9% for ‘Happy Holidays.’
All this data suggests that Trump voters are the real snowflakes on the ultra important holiday nomenclature issues.
One ramification of Donald Trump being in the White House is that voters do believe the ‘War on Christmas’ has been defeated. In 2012 when we first polled on this question 47% of voters thought there was a ‘War on Christmas,’ to 40% who disagreed with that notion. Now only 25% of voters continue to think that there is a ‘War on Christmas,’ to 52% who no longer feel that way. This may be the most tangible accomplishment of Trump’s first year in the White House, although a slight plurality of his voters (42/38) do still think there’s a ‘War on Christmas,’ so he will have to fight the war harder in his second year in office to keep the base happy.
In 2012 52% of Americans said they believed in Santa Claus to 45% who said they did not. The last few years in this country have destroyed our hope and joy on that front. After last year’s election belief in Santa dipped to 31% with 59% not believing. After the first year of the Trump administration it’s now dipped even further to just 22% believing in Santa, to 69% who don’t. That’s perhaps as good a measure of the general disillusionment our current political situation has created as there could be.
Love of Christmas is one of the few things that does pretty universally bring Americans together. 83% have a favorable opinion of the holiday, to 9% with a negative one- that includes positive reviews from 86% of Trump voters and 81% of Clinton voters. Hanukkah similarly is a source of agreement for Americans despite the current political divide- 66% of voters see it positively to 9% with an unfavorable opinion, and that includes positive sentiment from both 67% of Clinton voters and 63% of Trump voters.
Kwanzaa is a lot more divisive. Clinton voters view it positively by a 59/7 spread. But Trump voters are pretty split with 35% seeing it favorably, 26% unfavorable, and 39% having no opinion. This set of questions is at least helpful in making it very clear who the Trump base has a bigger problem with between Jews and black people.
Donald Trump isn’t polling well when it comes to Christmas related issues this year. Only 30% of voters think he’s on Santa’s nice list, to 57% who believe he is on the naughty list. We also asked voters who they think is meaner- Donald Trump or the Grinch, and Donald Trump or Scrooge. Voters think Trump is meaner than the Grinch by a 49/41 spread, and they think he’s meaner than Scrooge by a 50/40 spread.
Finally we polled on the perennial debate of the season- only 17% of voters think ‘Die Hard’ is a Christmas movie, to 55% who say it isn’t. But that does reflect increasing awareness for ‘Die Hard’ as a Christmas movie- 2 years ago only 13% thought it was, and 62% said it wasn’t. Much like gay marriage or marijuana legalization this is a generational issue, with younger voters much more likely to fall into the ‘it’s a Christmas movie’ camp. If this rate of change continues Americans will consider Die Hard to be a Christmas movie by 2025.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, or whatever you damn well please from the team at PPP.
Full results here