Do Jews in the UK celebrate Christmas?

In this report:

Do Jews in the UK mark Christmas? Jewish people have long had a complicated relationship with the holiday, with some deliberately ignoring it, and others choosing to put up a Christmas tree in their homes. 

In our 2022 National Jewish Identity Survey, we were interested to understand how common this practice is among Jews in the UK, so we invited respondents to tell us both whether they typically have a Christmas tree in their home today and whether they did during their childhood. Nearly 5,000 people shared their experience with us.

Some of the key findings in this report:

• Almost three in ten Jews in the UK (28%) say they have a Christmas tree at home either ‘some years’, ‘most years’ or ‘every year’;
• The older the respondents are, the less likely they are to have a Christmas tree at home every year or at all;
• While almost no Orthodox Jews report having a Christmas tree at home (1%), well over half of Jews who describe themselves as non-practising say they have one (58%);
• Jews who describe themselves as ‘Reform/Progressive’ are almost four times as likely to have a Christmas tree (38%) as those who describe themselves as ‘Traditional’ (8%);
• While only 4% of in-married couples say they put up a Christmas tree every year, 45% of respondents who are part of an intermarried couple report doing so;
• Almost one-quarter of Jews in the UK both light Chanukah candles and have a Christmas tree in their house, at least some years.