A clear majority of Americans continue to believe that religious symbols like Christmas Nativity scenes should be allowed on public land.

US polling company, Rasmussen Reports, asked, “Should religious symbols like Christmas Nativity scenes, Hanukkah Menorahs and Muslim Crescents be allowed on public land”. Seventy four per cent said yes, while only 17 per cent disagree and feel these symbols should not be allowed.

The issue is frequently controversial around Christmas, with radical US secular groups like the ACLU taking cases against public bodies which display such religious symbols.

The poll also revealed that 80 per cent of American adults also favor celebrating religious holidays in the public schools, another area subject to repeated legal challenge.

This includes 43 per cent who believe all religious holidays should be celebrated in the schools and 37 per cent who think only some of those holidays should be recognised.

The question did not specify which holidays should be celebrated and which should be excluded. Fourteen percent are opposed to celebrating any religious holidays in the schools.

Older adults are more supportive of religious symbols on public land than those under the age of 30. Women are slightly more inclined to favor such public displays than men.

But Americans across all demographic categories strongly favour these displays.

Women believe much more strongly than men that all religious holidays should be celebrated in the schools. There’s little difference of opinion on this question between those who have children living with them and those who don’t.

Again, support for celebrating religious holidays in the public schools is high across all demographic groups.

An overwhelming majority of Americans celebrate Christmas, and for most of those who celebrate, it’s a religious holiday rather than a secular one despite the strong commercial overtones of the season.

Very few Americans are offended when someone wishes them a “Merry Christmas,” but most are more likely to say “Happy Holidays” to someone else rather than risk offending them. They also prefer being greeted by store signs that say “Merry Christmas” rather than “Happy Holidays.”

Two years ago, the authorities in Washington State allowed a secular group to place an anti-religion message as part of the state’s official holiday display in the state capitol rotunda steps from a traditional nativity scene.

The sign read: “At this season of the winter solstice, may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”

The state allowed the sign after a row between secularists and people of faith over whether religious symbols were allowed on the rotunda. Secularists had said that putting such displays on government property violated the US Constitution’s provision on religious freedom.

The state government allowed the secular display on the grounds of inclusion, it said.