Has Christmas become more about Santa than religion?
Many Millennials see Christmas as more cultural than religious holiday
The Pew Research Center finds 9-in-10 Millennials say they take part in Christmas, but only 4-in-10 say they do so mainly as a religious holiday,
Millennials are less religious than older Americans and less likely to identify with a religious group, and those traits are reflected in the way they celebrate Christmas.
That stands in contrast to those in older generations, who in some cases are more likely to say they celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday, attend religious services for Christmas and believe Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, according to a new look at the data.
Instead, 43% of Millennials say Christmas to them is more of a cultural holiday – about as many as celebrate it as a religious holiday (40%), by contrast, members of older generations are more likely to say they celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday.
Among Baby Boomers, for example, more than twice as many see Christmas as more religious (56%) than cultural (26%).
Similarly, about half of Millennials (49%) said before Christmas in 2013 that they did not plan to attend religious services on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, compared with 41% of Boomers and 35% of Silent generation members.
And while fully one-quarter of Millennials (26%) say they do not they believe Jesus Christ was born to a virgin, about 1-in-5 or fewer among older generations say the same.
