SWS: 68% of Pinoys expect a happy Christmas

MANILA, Philippines — Almost seven in every 10 Filipinos are expecting a happy Christmas this year, a Social Weather Stations survey showed.

The Nov. 24 to 30 SWS survey released yesterday found that 68 percent of respondents expect their Christmas to be happy.

While it slightly improved from 65 percent last year, it is still five points lower than the 73 percent obtained in 2022 and 2023.

People expecting a sad Christmas dropped to seven percent from 10 percent last year.

The remaining 25 percent said their Christmas will neither be happy nor sad, almost similar to last year’s 26 percent.

Most Filipinos usually expect a happy Christmas.

The record-high was at 82 percent in 2002, when SWS first included the question in its poll.

It reached its lowest in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, when it dropped to 50 percent.

It recovered to 65 percent the following year.

Expectations of a happy Christmas increased across geographic areas, SWS said.

It was highest in Mindanao at 76 percent (from 73 percent), followed by those in the Visayas at 73 percent (from 71 percent) and Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon at 64 percent (from 58 percent and 59 percent, respectively).