Poll Reveals Family Not Jesus Is The Reason For The Season

Over the next 24 hours folks will be busy cleaning, cooking, wrapping presents, traveling and if you're like me doing some last minute shopping.

It's all in preparation for tomorrow, Christmas, a day when families will gather together to celebrate. But what they're celebrating is quite different from what is was 50 years ago.

            A recent survey conducted by lifeway.com reveals that most focus more on family than religious customs.

But FOX Fort Wayne found that in the area nicknamed "The City of Churches" the opposite seems true.

When asked what they thought the true meaning of Christmas was many Fort Wayne residents responded “the birth of Jesus Christ.”

            The survey asked over 2000 Americans "what is the most common thing you do at Christmas?" The number one answer was giving gifts. It was followed by putting up a Christmas tree, gathering for a Christmas meal and listening to Christmas music.

“It’s definitely Christ. I think people forget that and they get mixed up and you know in the hustle and bustle” says a local resident.

            According to the poll, not even half say they attend a Christmas Eve or Christmas Day service. And just 28-percent read a Christmas story from the Bible.

“My daughter told me this morning, there's only one person that can shut down the whole world for one day and that's Jesus Christ” another resident tells FOX Fort Wayne.