Poll: Over 50's say Christmas becoming too 'politically correct'

A new survey has suggested that most over 50s in the UK believe the country has gone too far in downgrading traditional Christian practices in its response to multiculturalism and that Christmas was becoming too "politically correct".

A Saga Populus poll of almost 10,000 over 50s showed that a huge 85 per cent of them were against the renaming of "Christmas" lights as "Winter" lights, reports The Times. The poll also showed that 84 per cent were not happy with the changing of traditional nativity plays to non-religious plays.

Companies banning Christmas decorations and schools banning their students from sending Christmas cards arroused the ire of 80 per cent of those surveyed.

The poll found that the most acceptable modern "non-Christian" practice at Christmas was the sending of Christmas cards with no explicit Christmas references, for example cards saying "Seasons Greetings" or "Happy Holidays".

Over one in five respondents described this as a "sad but accurate" reflection of modern Christmas, reports The Times.

The poll came out the same day as a Westminster Hall debate on "Christianophobia", called by Tory MP Mark Pritchard who raised concerns that the continued marginalisation of Christianity would see the cause of defending the faith taken up by extremist parties.