Is Christmas in decline? Yesterday I suggested that it just might be. Now the results of the first annual (extremely unscientific) Corner survey of American Christmas are in. Just under 100 people wrote in to comment on my post. Only 69 took a recognizable position on the Christmas in decline question, while only 62 could be placed in “red” or “blue” territory with reasonable certainty. The survey’s basic findings are unsurprising. Christmas seems to be going gangbusters in red America, although there are some signs of erosion even there. Christmas in blue America is in a more complicated state. In Democratic, Catholic, and working class sections of the urban mid-west, Christmas remains strong. But in cosmopolitan urban areas on the coasts, and in university communities, Christmas shows clear signs of weakening. Of course, it’s impossible to draw reliable conclusions from a very small segment of self-selected Corner readers. Still, the findings of this very informal “survey” do make intuitive sense. Here are some numbers. I got 29 messages from folks in red state areas saying Christmas was going strong. Of those, fifteen were from southern states (including Texas). Four red staters (actually, I tried to go by county, like the original map, rather than by state) said Christmas was weakening, and four painted a mixed picture. In contrast, 18 blue staters said Christmas in their vicinity was weakening, while 10 blue state respondents said Christmas in their area remained strong. (A few folks who had moved between red and blue states, and who gave opinions about both, were counted twice.) All told, 41 respondents said Christmas remained strong, 34 said Christmas was in decline, and 4 gave a mixed reading.