SWS: Sad Christmas expectation up to all-time high

Filipinos expecting a sad Christmas went up to an all-time high this year, according to the recent survey by Social Weather Station.   In its Fourth Quarter 2011 survey, the SWS said expectations of a sad Christmas increased by four points from 7 percent in 2010 to 11 percent in 2011. "This surpassed the all-time high sadness level of 10 percent posted in 2004 and 2009," it said.   SWS said the 64 percent expecting a happy 2011 Christmas is five points down from last year, when expectations of a happy Christmas rebounded to 69 percent after being flat at 62 to 64 percent from 2004 to 2009.   "Sixty-four percent of adult Filipinos are expecting a happy Christmas, 11 percent expect it to be sad, and 24 percent say their Christmas will be neither happy nor sad," it said of its survey conducted Dec. 3 to 7.   Starting 2004, the percentage of adult Filipinos expecting a happy Christmas has been in the sixties: 64 percent in 2004, 62 percent in 2005 and 2006, 64 percent in 2007, 63 percent in 2008, and 64 percent in 2009.   Money, health and family togetherness, meanwhile, top the Christmas wish lists of Filipinos this year.   "The December 2011 survey found 23 percent of Filipinos would like to receive money the most for Christmas gift, while 17 percent would like good health, and 13 percent would like their family to be together this Christmas," it added.   The SWS first surveyed expectations about Christmas-to-come in the Fourth Quarter of 2002, and found a high of 82 percent expecting it to be happy. But the percentage declined to 77 percent in 2003, and then fell to the sixties in the next six years.   The December 2011 SWS was conducted from December 3 to 7 — or days before tropical storm Sendong wrecked havoc in Mindanao and Visayas, killer over 1,000 people — using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults in Metro Manila, the balance of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.   Sampling error margins of ±3% for national percentages, and ±6% for area percentages, applied to the survey. — KBK, GMA News