More than four in five Australians prefer the traditional greeting of ‘Merry Christmas’ over that of ‘Seasons Greetings’ or ‘Happy Holidays’ while 90 per cent support having nativity scenes in public, according to new research.
A poll of 1,002 Australians, carried out by McCrindle, also revealed that older generations are more likely to prefer the greeting of ‘Merry Christmas’ than Generation Y and Z (87 per cent to 81 per cent) and that even those people who practice religion other than Christianity or have no religious beliefs are supportive of public nativity scenes. Just nine per cent of Australians say shopping centres and local councils should not display these decorations.
Other findings of the survey showed 36 per cent of respondants rated technology gifts as the best type of gift compared with 26 per cent rating ‘experiences’ like movie tickets or gift vouchers the highest, 21 per cent jewellery and 20 per cent food. Twenty-four per cent of respondants rated novelty gifts such as a selfie stick or a fidget spinner as the ‘worst’ gift.
Women rated the top three ‘best gifts’ as experiences (36 per cent), technology (35 per cent) and jewellery (29 per cent) while the top three ‘best gifts’ for men were rated as technology (37 per cent), experiences (17 per cent) and food gifts (16 per cent).
McCrindle also analysed figures from the Bureau of Meteorology from more than 70 Christmases to show that Perth, Adelaide and Canberra have the best chance of perfect weather on Christmas Day. All three cities have an average temperature of the late 20’s and more than an 80 per cent chance of no rain.
GRAPHIC: McCrindle
