For the first time since 2018, more than half of the country’s residents foresee a holiday season with more fun than stress.
Vancouver, BC [December 20, 2022] – While the proportion of Canadians who are fond of saying “Happy Holidays” has risen since 2018, most of the country’s residents continue to rely on “Merry Christmas”, a new Research Co. poll has found.
In the online survey of a representative national sample, 64% of Canadians say “Merry Christmas” is their preferred greeting for the season, up two points since a similar Research Co. survey conducted in December 2021.
Just over one-in-five Canadians (21%, +1) say they prefer using “Happy Holidays”, while 15% (-3) are not sure or do not care either way.
Since 2018, the proportion of Canadians who prefer “Merry Christmas” has fallen by 10 points, while the number of those who rely on “Happy Holidays” has increased by seven points.
“Only 14% of Canadians who voted for the Conservative Party in 2021 prefer to say Happy Holidays,” says Mario Canseco, President of Research Co. “The proportions are higher among Canadians who supported the New Democratic Party (NDP) (22%) or the Liberal Party (24%).”
More than half of Canadians (52%, +3) say they expect the current holiday season to be “more fun than stressful”, while three-in-ten (29%, +2) think it will be “more stressful than fun.”
Four groups are more likely to predict a stressful holiday season in 2022: women (31%), Canadians aged 35-to-54 (33%), Atlantic Canadians (40%) and NDP voters in 2021 (35%).
At least three-in-five Canadians say they like three staples of holiday meals: turkey (84%, =), cranberry sauce (64%, =) and Brussels sprouts (60%, -2).
A majority of Canadians enjoy fruit cake (55%, -1) and egg nog (also 55%, +1), while fewer like mince pies (48%, -2), plum pudding (42%, -1) and mulled wine (36%, +2).
Egg nog is equally popular in Alberta (60%), British Columbia (59%), Atlantic Canada (also 59%), Saskatchewan and Manitoba (58%) and Ontario (also 58%), but drops to 43% in Quebec.
Methodology: Results are based on an online study conducted on December 10 to December 12, 2022, among 1,000 adults in Canada. The data has been statistically weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region in Canada. The margin of error—which measures sample variability—is +/- 3.1 percentage points, nineteen times out of twenty.
Find our data tables 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