Fox News Poll: Most Voters Say 'Merry Christmas'

When asked what holiday spirit they are feeling, a strong majority of voters -- 75 percent -- still answers with “Merry Christmas,” according to a Fox News poll released Friday, while about one in five voters (22 percent) say they feel obligated to say “Happy Holidays” these days.

Three in 10 voters say they would stop shopping at a store that refused to allow employees to say “Merry Christmas” and required them to say “Happy Holidays” instead. For 65 percent, it wouldn’t make any difference and they would continue to shop at that store.

But nearly half of Republicans (46 percent) and white born-again Christians (48 percent) would stop shopping at a store that refused to allow employees to say “Merry Christmas.”

Click here for the full poll results.

Should President Obama get the gift he asked Santa for, or does he just deserve a lump of coal in his stocking? The views of American voters are mixed.

Many voters -- 41 percent -- would give the president whatever is on his list, according to the poll. That includes a 60 percent majority of Democrats, as well as 43 percent of independents and 24 percent of Republicans.

Over half of voters though, wouldn’t give the president anything that nice. About a third would only give Obama a fruit cake (31 percent) and one in five would give him a lump of coal (21 percent).

Seven percent of Democrats would put coal in Obama’s stocking, as would 14 percent of independents and 39 percent of Republicans.

When it comes to themselves, voters are also not feeling all that festive. Some 28 percent say they feel less jolly this year compared to last, while 11 percent say they feel more in the holiday spirit. More women (32 percent) than men (23 percent) say they feel less in the spirit of things. For the most part though, people say they feel about the same spirit as always (61 percent).

As for shopping, especially at the very last minute, hardly anyone -- 2 percent -- admits to doing shopping on Christmas Eve. Most say they are either spending time with family (60 percent) or attending church services (23 percent) that night. Another 10 percent are wrapping presents and preparing the house for the celebration.

And then there is the day after the gifts are opened. There are bound to be duds. What do you do with them? Most people either don’t re-gift items they don’t like or won’t admit to doing so.

About one third of people say their unwanted gifts are more likely returned or exchanged for something else (31 percent), while nearly half say they “just keep them” (49 percent) -- presumably in the back of the closet. Only a small, 16 percent minority says they would re-gift something they had received as a gift and didn’t like.

Republicans (39 percent) are more likely than Democrats (24 percent) to return or exchange an unwanted gift. Democrats (54 percent) are more likely than Republicans (42 percent) to just keep it.

The national telephone poll was conducted for Fox News by Opinion Dynamics Corp. among 900 randomly chosen registered voters from Dec. 14 to Dec. 15. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points for the total sample.