Sydney, Australia
Religious traditions surrounding Christmas celebrations are supported by 81 per cent of Australians, according to new research, but 80 per cent of the population say Christmas has become “too commercialised”.
The findings come despite 2016 Australian Census data showing a seven per cent drop in the number of people identifying as Christians – from to 52 per cent from 74 per cent in 2011 – and an increasing number of Australians choosing “no religion”, a proportion which rose from 19 per cent in 2006 to 30 per cent in 2016.
A Christmas tree at Federation Square in Melbourne. PICTURE: David Adams.
More than 1,000 people were questioned by McCrindle Research across Australia in late November on the extent of their agreement on various questions relating to Christmas.
While 36 per cent of Australians are “much” or “slightly” more looking forward to Christmas this year, 45 per cent were feeling about the same as last year; 12 per cent were “slightly less” looking forward to it and eight per cent were looking forward to the season “much less” than previously.
McCrindle social researcher Ashley Fell said by age group, Generation Z and Generation Y had the highest proportions of those looking forward to Christmas this year – 43 per cent and 45 per cent respectively – while among Gen X just 34 per cent said they were along with 21 per cent of Baby Boomers and 35 per cent of Builders.
However, 88 per cent of respondents said they loved spending “quality time” with their families during Christmas, a result described as unsurprising by Fell, especially in view of the number of COVID-19 lockdowns across various states and territories in the past two years.
“I think that’s what we expect, especially after the year that we’ve had and even [after] some Australians [being] in lockdown for last Christmas,” she said.
And it appears people are looking to brighten their lives this Christmas time, with 42 per cent saying they had, or were planning to put up their Christmas decorations earlier this year.
Fell said another interesting result was that 81 per cent were supportive of the religious traditions and symbols of Christmas, particularly as there was a percentage of those within this group who weren’t Christians.
“I think there’s a disconnect between Australians, even in the Census data from 2016, who say, ‘I am a Christian’ versus those who are active participants of Christianity in terms of whether they attend church regularly,” she said.
“I am wondering if that is playing out here also, where people say, ‘yes, I am supportive if it doesn’t impact me, it’s not impacting me in a negative way’, even if they don’t identify with Christianity.”
A 2019 McCrindle survey canvassing similar themes found that more than half of Australians (52 per cent) believe Christmas had lost its Christian meaning.
However, close to six in 10 (58 per cent) said they would be happy for Christmas not to lose any of its Christian meaning.
If combined with those who were neutral about it, 93 per cent of Australians were happy or did not mind Christmas not losing any of its Christian meaning, the 2019 survey found.
A similar proportion of people (80 per cent) agreed that Christmas had become too commercialised, and admitted to regifting unwanted presents.
“I think that’s really interesting and we, kind of, link that to (the) fun stat(istic) where almost half of Australians, being 44 per cent, don’t hesitate to regift a present that they don’t like.”
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More sobering results revealed 46 per cent of Aussies found Christmas a tough time, but optimistically, 52 per cent planned to invite and share Christmas with someone who didn’t have anyone at Christmas to join in their family celebrations.
People living in the ACT and NSW were more likely to invite those who don’t have anyone at Christmas to join them (65 per cent and 57 per cent respectively), compared to West Australians (55 per cent), Victorians, Queenslanders and those in the Northern Territory (50 per cent), Tasmanians (48 per cent) and those in South Australia (39 per cent).
Despite the hardships suffered during the pandemic, 77 per cent of respondents to the survey said they were feeling optimistic about 2022. This compares to 87 per cent of Australians in the McCrindle survey ahead of 2020.
Fell said the younger generations particularly felt positively heading into the New Year.
