The 'War on Christmas' Is Boring

Americans really don’t care about a “war on Christmas” anymore.

Per a recent Pew survey, more than half of U.S. adults believe the Christian trappings of Christmas—crèches, crosses, magi chasing stars—are less prominent now than they were in the past. Meanwhile, 30 percent say the slippage hasn’t increased, and a mere 12 percent claim to see a reverse trend.

The majority—56 percent, precisely—may be onto something. A declining number of professed Christians believe in the historical reality of the nativity cycle. Of the virgin birth, the annunciation to the shepherds, the adoration of the magi, and the laying of the Christ child in a manger, respondents find the the manger to bethe most believable. (Just 75 percent profess to buy that bit, down from 81 percent only four years ago.)

Since 2013's survey to now, 4 four percent fewer Americans say they celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday, but a consistent 9-in-10 answered that they do indeed celebrate in some fashion.

More meaningful perhaps, is the apathetic quarter of surveyed Americans who admitted: Sure, Christmas gets less Christian every year, but who really cares? Of the 56 percent who see Christ’s incarnation fading from the yuletide scene, nearly half don’t mind at all: 25 percent answered that “the religious parts of Christmas are now emphasized less” but added that the perceptible decline “does not bother me.”