Should Jesus be a part of Christmas? Here's what Canadians think

There are two kinds of Canadians whose unusual views about the importance of Jesus in Christmas celebration place them in quirky but significant minorities, according to a new poll.

First, there’s the 10 per cent of Canadians who do not believe in God at all but nevertheless think it is important to remember Jesus at Christmastime.

The second group is the 18 per cent of Canadians who affirm a belief in a god but do not think it is important to remember Jesus at the festival of his birth.

These demographically curious Canadians emerge from a new poll about belief in God and the importance of Jesus in Christmas celebration.

The rest of the poll results align with previous studies about the place of God in Canadian minds, at Christmas and throughout the year.

It shows 54 per cent of people say they believe in God, 32 per cent say they do not, and 14 decline to say. Men and women are within two points of each on the question, but there is significantly greater belief among the over 55 age group (60 per cent), and less among the under 35 (48 per cent). Provincially, belief in God runs from a low of 42 per cent in Quebec to a high of 69 per cent in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

The poll shows, for example, that a slim majority of 51 per cent of adult Canadians (children were not consulted) believe it is important to remember the role of Jesus when celebrating Christmas. People under age 35 are more divided and a slim majority of Quebecers feel it is not important, said Jack Jedwab, president of the Association for Canadian Studies, which commissioned the poll by Leger. It was conducted online through a panel survey of 1,723 respondents between Dec. 19 and 21.

Jedwab said its most striking finding is what he calls the “ambiguity” about why Christmas is celebrated in the first place, whether as a major Christian holy day about the coming of Jesus, or as a major modern civic winter holiday about the coming of Santa Claus.

He also sees clear evidence of “the desire to de-Christianize Christmas in the spirit of state secularism.”

In terms of the unbelievers who still want to see Christ in Christmas, Jedwab sees their responses as stating a view not so much about themselves as about society, less about their personal beliefs and more about what Christmas should be today as a major civic holiday, given what it originally or traditionally was in the past.

These people are “outliers” who are making an observation about Christmas rather than expressing a personal conviction, Jedwab said.

These people might be cultural traditionalists who just happen to be atheists. They might simply like the idea of Christmas as a culturally unifying festival with religious origins. They might be high-cultured aesthetes who appreciate the time-honoured ritual of song and scripture without personally endorsing the metaphysical extravagances of supernatural belief. Or they might just be the sort of person who prefers Christmas hymns like Adeste Fideles and Joy To The World to Jingle Bell Rock and All I Want For Christmas Is You. These attitudes are evidently common, the poll shows. During Advent, it is mainly the devout who line the pews. But on Christmas, the old timey bells and smells draw a more theologically diverse crowd.

People who believe in a god but do not think it is important to remember Jesus at Christmas are more common, at 18 per cent.

One possible explanation for this apparent contradiction is that these people believe in a different, non-Christian god or gods, and their thoughts about Christmas as a civic holiday are just more in line with prevailing secularism.

Or maybe they believe in the Abrahamic God and are just not Christians, but rather Muslims or Jews, who regard the historical Jesus of Nazareth differently, not as the central figure and not as the deity.

Some of them are likely Christian-adjacent people but not the ardent faithful or those who do not go to church on Christmas.

For some, Christmas happens in the mall, not at mass. For them, Jesus does not enter into it.

A margin of error cannot be calculated for a panel survey like this, but a poll with a sample size of 1,723 respondents would have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The survey results were weighted according to the 2021 census.

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