In its fourth annual survey, GiftBasketsDeluxe.com, a major gift basket company, today announced the results of an analysis of holiday gift card messages sent through their company.
The study showed that 60 percent of holiday gift baskets sent used the politically correct term "holidays" on their gift card, as opposed to the more traditional term "Christmas."
This is a stark reversal of the previous three-year trend. Studies of gifts sent through the company in prior years show that:
* 58 percent used the term "holidays" (as opposed to "Christmas") in 2004
* 43 percent used it in 2005
* A record-low level of 27 percent used it in 2006
* A record-high 60 percent used it in 2007
"The most surprising element of this test is the huge swing from last year," said Don Crowther, president of GiftBasketsDeluxe.com. "For something to more than double in one year indicates that a major factor has changed. Perhaps it is because of the election season (note that the previous high was in 2004, a national election year), or perhaps it is due to the increasing sensitivity to other cultures and their holiday celebrations."
This type of data is more accurate than traditional poll data, because
it reports what people actually do, rather than what they tell pollsters
they do, Crowther said.
Crowther also noticed an increasing sensitivity to nationalities of recipients. "Our customer service staff has noted a large number of people asking if we could identify the nationalities of the surnames of the recipients of the gift baskets they are sending, so they can use a term that is not offensive."
The study includes gift baskets ordered between Nov. 16 and Dec. 16,
2007.
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