A majority of American voters believe that a call for more people to say "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays" is a cause invented for political reasons, not a real issue, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.
Seventy-six percent believe the issue was "made up for political purposes," compared to 19 percent who do not believe the issue was made up.
Breaking down the poll results by party, gender, age, education, or race showed that none of those groups believes the issue to be real, according to the poll.
"American voters suspect a political Grinch behind the so-called war on Christmas," said Tim Malloy, assistant director at the Quinnipiac University Poll.
The poll was conducted from Dec. 13 to Dec. 18 among 1,230 voters around the U.S., with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.
Another poll, released Thursday from the Pew Research Center, said most Americans were not concerned about whether workers in stores and businesses said "Merry Christmas" or some other greeting.