2 in 5 British millennials don't know Jesus is the baby in the Nativity; don't know Joseph and Mary
A survey has found that as many as two out of five British millennials do not know that Jesus Christ is the baby in Nativity scene displays.
The survey, carried out by research company OnePoll on behalf of Hotels.com, found that 39 percent of 2,000 Britons aged between 21 and 38 did not know the baby's identity. A similar amount, or 37 percent of respondents, also did not know about Joseph and Mary, Jesus' earthly parents.
The poll, which examined a number of other questions regarding family and Christmas, found that less than 10 percent of young people were able to name the gifts by the three wise men in the story, namely gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
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Six percent said that they believed the story of Santa Clause was somehow linked with the Nativity.
"Of course I know about Jesus and Joseph and Mary, although I'm not too sure what the three wise men were doing or the Angel Gabriel for that matter," said one of the respondents, 29-year old Craig Munro.
"It is shocking that some people in my age group don't know the story of the Nativity, but time moves on and some traditions go out of the window I suppose,” he added, according to MailOnline.
As for how people prefer to spend Christmas, one in 10 millennials said they did not want to spend it at their in-laws' home.
A fifth said that they would prefer to spend Christmas in the company with friends instead. Only 10 percent noted that they made plans for a get-together with friends over the holidays, however.
“We all love getting together with friends and family at Christmas, and everyone celebrates it differently," said Adam Jay, president of Hotels.com, according to The Independent.
Various surveys have documented a decline when it comes to religious faith in Britain. One study released in 2017 by ComRes found that only six percent of British adults could be classified as practicing Christians.
When looking at the Christian respondents, the poll found that as many as 55 percent of believers never read the Bible. A third, or 33 percent of Christians said that they never attend church, and another 29 percent said that they never pray.
Rachel Jordan, the Church of England's National Mission and Evangelism adviser, admitted at the time that the results showed "a real sense of the scale of the task ahead."
"We are really happy when people in this country chose to affiliate with us, identifying as both Christian and Church of England even if in practice they don't always choose to join in our churches," Jordan said.
"But this does show that we need to do more to connect with those people and explore ways to draw them into the wider church community."
