Is it 'Santa Claus' or 'Father Christmas'? Yahoo readers have their say

Yahoo UK's poll of the week lets you vote and indicate your strength of feeling on one of the week's hot topics. After the poll closes, we'll publish and analyse the results each Friday, giving readers the chance to see how polarising a topic has become and if their view chimes with other Yahoo UK readers.

It's the age-old debate at this time of year - what to call the big man in the red suit.

Is it Santa Claus, Father Christmas, or something else?

Each name has its own history, and in the same way language evolves, so too has the name for our favourite Christmas figure, with different people having their own preference for various reasons.

Yahoo News UK asked our readers which name they prefer, here are the results:

Our poll asked: 'Which do you prefer to say?', offering options of Father Christmas, Santa Claus or neither.

It received 1,096 votes and showed 75% of Yahoo readers say Father Christmas while 22% say Santa Claus. Just 3% voted 'neither'.

Yahoo News UK readers were also asked: 'How important is it to keep using traditional Christmas phrases?'

This poll received 668 votes with the most common vote being 10, indicating many readers were in favour of tradition when it comes to festive phrases.

The average strength-of-feeling score on all the votes was 8.67.

Polling by YouGov suggested the more traditional name of "Father Christmas" was used by 43% of the country – down by 8% from 2017. Meanwhile, "Santa" was up by 9%, with 45% of those surveyed saying they used that name the most.

There's a clear generational split, with 62% of 18 to 24 year olds saying they used Santa more often, compared to 21% for Father Christmas.

As for people aged 65 and over, Father Christmas is still the clear favourite, with 60% of this age group favouring Father Christmas, and 25% preferring Santa.

Read more of Yahoo UK's Poll of the Week articles