“Merry Christmas” is the overwhelming favourite greeting for the season.
Vancouver, BC [December 24, 2018] – While most Canadians are anticipating a blissful holiday season, there are some who are expecting more anxiety than merriment, a new Research Co. poll has found.
In the online survey of a representative national sample, a majority of Canadians (57%) say they foresee a holiday season that will be “more fun than stressful”, but one-in-four (25%) say they expect it to be “more stressful than fun.”
Residents of British Columbia and Quebec are the most likely to say they will enjoy a holiday season that is “more fun than stressful” (70% and 60% respectively).
In Alberta, residents are almost evenly divided: 45% expect more fun than stress, while 43% believe there will be more stress than fun.
Three-in-four Canadians (74%) say their preferred greeting for the season is Merry Christmas, while a significantly smaller proportion (14%) choose Happy Holidays.
“Affinity to Merry Christmas increases with age,” says Mario Canseco, President of Research Co. “On a regional basis, fewer than one-in-twenty Albertans express a preference for Happy Holidays.”
Across the country, more than a third of Canadians (38%) say religion is “very important” or “moderately important” to their daily lives, while three-in-five (62%) say it is “not too important” or “not important at all.”
Almost half of Canadians aged 55 and over (46%) say religion is important in their daily life, a proportion that drops to 40% among those aged 35-to-54 and 29% among those aged 18-to-34.
Residents of Saskatchewan and Manitoba are way ahead of the Canadian average when it comes to the importance of religion (60%). Ontario and Atlantic Canada are second (43% each), followed by Alberta (42%, Quebec (30%) and British Columbia (25%).
Methodology:
Results are based on an online study conducted from December 3 to December 6, 2018, among 1,000 adults in Canada. The data has been statistically weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region. The margin of error—which measures sample variability—is +/- 3.1 percentage points, nineteen times out of twenty.
Find our full data set here and download the press release here.
For more information on this poll, please contact:
Mario Canseco, President, Research Co.
778.929.0490
[e] mario.canseco@researchco.ca