Young 'forget Jesus at Christmas'
Fewer than half of children aged seven to 11 think Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, a survey suggests.
Some 44% thought it was about Jesus, while 29% said it was about thinking of other people, and 24% said it was about giving rather than receiving gifts.
The survey of 1,063 children for BBC's Newsround programme found 89% felt excited about Christmas and 79% happy.
But one in six of the youngsters surveyed said they felt sad, nervous or left out during the festive season.
The survey found almost two-thirds of children saved their pocket money to buy presents for other people, and they tended to spend more on their mothers than their fathers.
The average amount saved by the children for presents was £34, and a third saved more than £50.
But Christmas was not enjoyable for all young people, it found, with some saying they felt "cold", "tired" or "worried" at this time of year. It's never been harder or more important to protect the true magic of Christmas Ellie Crisell
Newsround presenter
Newsround presenter Ellie Crisell said: "Christmas is one of the most exciting times of year for children.
"But it can also be stressful. They worry about their families getting along, about buying the right present and, amid the festivities, feeling alone.
"It's never been harder or more important to protect the true magic of Christmas."
The survey was carried out by researchers ChildWise.
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Of course that's in the (mostly secular) UK. I'm sure the results in the US would be different.
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very different. Christmas = Baby Jesus.
well... i was watching the daily show on comedey central last night, and they had a clip from "Fox and Friends" and it said that a list from children that ranked the coolest things put god/jesus at number 10 or 11... Nice food beat god/jesus... YES! However, god was #2 as the most famous person....
lol hey! I was so going to post about that! But yeah God/Heaven was #10 on the list of things Kids most cared about. However #1 was Famous people, and God was consider the most famous person so therefore God = #1! YEAY for God....
Remember a few months back they mentioned that list of the most influential fictional charcters? I thought God should have been # 1 there.
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I'm not so sure. Even in the US I'd think the majority think more about Pokemon than JC this time of year.
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yeah I probably agree with that...however you don't see many people missing church on Christmas Eve/Day. I know non-church goers, who go on those days.