Britons really dislike ‘Chrissie’ and ‘Crimble’, while tending to dislike ‘Crimbo’ and ‘holiday season’
- Nearly half of Britons (46%) dislike or hate people referring to Christmas as ‘Crimbo’
- ‘Chrissie’ and ‘Crimble’ are even less popular terms for Christmas than ‘Crimbo’
- Older Britons have much more negative opinions of ‘holiday season’, ‘festive season’ and ‘Crimbo’ than younger Britons
- ‘Xmas’ is the most popular alternative Christmas name polled, with 52% of Britons seeing it positively
Christmas goes by many names – from the traditional shortening ‘Xmas’, to the French-originated ‘noel’ and the Germanic ‘yule’, through to informal nicknames like ‘Crimbo’. But a new YouGov poll reveals that not all these terms fill everybody with festive cheer…
Britons tend to dislike the term ‘Crimbo’, with nearly half of Britons (46%) having a negative opinion of people using it to refer to Christmas. It does, though, have its fans, with 21% of the public liking or even loving the word, while 32% neither like nor dislike it.
But it’s not the public’s least favourite seasonal synonym, with 68% disliking or hating people calling Christmas ‘Crimble’, a term popularised by The Beatles, while 78% feel that way about the term ‘Chrissie’, including 50% who outright ‘hate’ the word.
‘Xmas’ is the most popular alternative term for Christmas polled, with just over half of Britons (52%) having a positive view of the abbreviation, compared to just 16% disliking it.
Talk of the ‘festive season’ also tends to be seen positively, with 43% of Britons approving of people using it to refer to Christmas time, though 20% dislike it. ‘Holiday season’, however, is almost a mirror image, with 42% seeing the term negatively, relative to just 24% liking or disliking the term.
Yuletide and Noel are seen more neutrally by Britons, with 39-44% neither liking nor disliking either Christmas substitute.
While Christmas might be a celebration for all ages, some of these alternative terms are not.
The greatest generational divide is seen with ‘holiday season’, which is seen positively by 18-24 year olds by a margin of 53% to 18% but viewed negatively by majorities in over 50 age groups (53-55%). Attitudes towards ‘festive season’ follow a similar pattern, but with opinion not tipping into net negativity among older Britons: over 65s are divided 34% to 26% on whether they like or dislike the phrase.
Dislike of ‘Crimbo’ is also highest among older Britons. Six in ten over 65s (60%) say they dislike or hate the term, compared to 41-47% of younger age groups, while the 29% of 18-24 year olds who are happy to hear ‘Crimbo’ contrasts with the 11% of over 65s who feel the same.
Yuletide is the biggest exception to this age curve, with positive opinion towards the term rising from 20% of 18-24 year olds to 42% of over 65s, while negative sentiment towards people referring to Christmas as Yuletide falls from 28% to 17%.
For more on British attitudes to Christmas, read the YouGov Big Survey on Christmas
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Photo: Getty
