Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Hopatcong-Sparta Patch Readers!

We here at Hopatcong-Sparta Patch wish you and your family a wonderful holiday full of peace, love, joy, blessings and good cheer. And may you have a healthy and prosperous 2014 too!

But as we celebrate with family and friends today, we pause to ask, is it "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays?"

When it comes to communicating greetings of the season, a poll appears to show that a majority of U.S. residents prefer “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays.”

Last December, the Pew Research Center asked U.S. residents whether they prefer stores and businesses to greet customers with “Merry Christmas” or a less religious phrase such as "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings." Half of the survey respondents were asked simply to choose between “Merry Christmas” and the less religious terms. The remaining half was given those options and a little more: "or doesn't it matter to you?"

Among the first group, 57 percent of survey takers stated a preference for “Merry Christmas” and 27 percent chose less religious terms. An additional 15 percent, without prompting, volunteered that they had no preference.

In comparison, the group explicitly asked the additional question broke down with 42 percent saying they preferred “Merry Christmas,” 12 percent preferred greetings such as "Happy Holidays" and, in first place, 46 percent said it doesn’t matter.

We want to know what you think. Tell us simply if you prefer “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays.” Or does it matter?