While the U.S. is growing less Christian, three-quarters of Americans still identify with the religion. Unsurprisingly, 96 percent of Christians celebrate Christmas. More surprisingly: Pew Research polling indicates that 81 percent of non-Christians celebrate the holiday.
That’s about a third of Jews, three-quarters of Hindus and Buddhists, and 87 percent of people who identify as nonreligious, reports Pew senior editor Michael Lipka. Overall, about half of Americans see it as a “religious” holiday, while a third say it’s a “cultural” one. To put this in perspective, colonial Puritans hated Christmas so much they banned it, since it wasn’t Christian enough.
While you may have heard lots about a contemporary War on Christmas – a brilliant piece of cultural engineering by Fox News, and not unaided by a zombie Jesus or two — the numbers say it flatly: Americans are unabashedly into the Norse-Roman-Christian holiday, even if they haven’t been baptized themselves.
Christmas, actually, is everywhere.