New Poll Says Fewer Terrorists Celebrate Christmas

A new poll out confirms what many Americans already suspected: that terrorists are less likely than the public at large to celebrate Christmas. Even fewer define the holiday as a religious commemoration inspired by Christ's birth.

Percentage of terrorists who exchange gifts, display lights, continues to drop

By Russell D'Arby

A new poll conducted by Polltronics and released this week has confirmed what many Americans have long suspected: that terrorists are less likely than members of the public at large to celebrate Christmas. Even fewer recognize that Christmas day has religious significance as the occasion of Christ's birth.

The poll, based on 2,130 telephone interviews conducted earlier this month, found that while fully 96% of Americans celebrate Christmas, only 9% of terrorists mark this festive holiday. 16% of Americans say that they celebrate Chrismakkuh, a combination of Christmas and Hanukkah, five percent say that they celebrate just Hanukkah, while two percent observe the December holiday of Kwanzaa. Among terrorists, only one percent claimed to celebrate Chrismakkuh. Multiple responses were acceptable. (Click on any image that follows to enlarge it.)

Fewer terrorists define Christmas as Jesus' b-day
The polls findings come as a surprise in at least one respect: the number of terrorists who define Christmas day as the day upon which Jesus Christ was born of a virgin more than 6,000 years ago dropped significantly from this time last year. A 2003 poll of terrorist attitudes towards Christmas found that 13% identified December 25 as Jesus' birthday. That number in the most recent poll had dropped to 4%, a difference of 9%.

Terrorists were further questioned as to how they planned to spend Christmas day, regardless of whether they defined the day as the anniversary of Christ's birth. 22% said that they would be working on Christmas day, 19% said that they would be spending the day with friends and family, 7% said that they planned to do light work around the house, and 38% answered "other."

The reason for the season?
The survey results confirmed what other polls have indicated. A recent Gallup survey found that 90 percent of Americans are familiar with "the reason for the season"—the Christian faith's commemoration of the birth of Jesus—and three out of four Americans say there is not enough emphasis on the religious basis for the holiday. Only 2% of terrorists polled said that they were familiar with the phrase "the reason for the season." 27% said that they believed that the Christmas holiday placed adequate emphasis on its religious origins.

Christmas also beat out Thanksgiving as the favorite holiday of Americans by a margin of 2 to 1. 63% of Americans polled said that the yuletide celebration was their favorite, while only 27% gave Thanksgiving top honors. Just 6% of terrorists said that Christmas was their favorite holiday of the year, while 2% chose Thanksgiving.

Finally, a category on which everyone can agree: nearly equal numbers of terrorists and members of the public at large said that resisting the temptation to overindulge in cookies and candy can be a challenge during the holidays. Four in 10 Americans (41 percent) say they will not even try to resist and plan to "eat and drink whatever" they want during the holidays, compared with 38% of terrorists. 50% of Americans say that they plan to try to eat healthy, "but enjoy some holiday treats." 46% of terrorists plan to do the same.

How this Polltronics poll was conducted
Samples for Polltronics polls are random digit samples of telephone numbers selected using the "probability proportionate to size" method, which means numbers from across the country are selected in proportion to the number of voters in each state.

A computer selects the first eight digits of an actual working number and then appends a two-digit random number to produce a random-digit dial (RDD) sample. An RDD sample allows for contacting not only listed and unlisted numbers, but also households with new numbers.

In order to ensure a distribution of ages and genders within households, the interviewer selects the respondent by asking to speak to the adult with the next birthday. Quotas are applied to ensure the sample mirrors the proportions of voters nationally. Specifically, the aim is for a gender split nationwide of 53% female / 47% male, as well as regional quotas.

The RDD selected phone numbers are sent to the interviewers through computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) software. Both the software and human supervisors monitor each step of the interviewing process. While calls are automatically dialed, the system does not use predictive dialing so prospective respondents always find a live interviewer when they answer their phone.

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Comments

[hooch]

why would terrorists celebrate christmas. their Muslims. christmas is a time of peace, terrorists dont usually put peace high on their list. What a useless stupid article

[Mark Brenner]

This poll is very interesting, especially the sharp decline in the number of terrorists who see Christmas as the anniversary of Christ's virgin birth. I wonder about the sample sizes though, and whether this limits the poll's reliability. The description of the methodology doesn't say anything about how they ensured an adequate number of terrorists were polled, and given what I hope are their small numbers in the general U.S. population, how can we ensure a sufficient number were included?

Another thing that makes me a little suspicious is that no terrorists reported celebrating Kwanzaa. The authors don't make any mention of this seemingly anomalous finding, but it makes me worry. I'd love to hear what others think.