Most people aged over 50 believe Britain has gone too far in downgrading traditional Christian practices out of sensitivity to multi-culturalism, according to a new survey.

The poll of nearly 10,000 over-50s, carried out by Populus, echoed concerns raised at Parliament today in a debate led by Tory backbencher Mark Pritchard, who condemned attempts to downgrade Christmas in public life.

The Saga Populus panel, the largest panel of over 50s in the UK, found widespread concerns that some modern Christmas practises are too "politically correct".

The biggest complaint was replacing "Christmas" lights with "winter" lights by local authorities, with 85 per cent protesting. The practice of replacing nativity plays with non-religious performances was described as the second greatest over-reaction to multiculturalism by 84 per cent of those polled.

Eight in ten were upset that some companies have banned Christmas decorations and some schools have banned children from sending Christmas cards.

Sending cards saying "Seasons Greetings" or "Happy holidays" rather than references to Christmas was seen as the most reasonable of modern practices, however, and more than one in five described non-religious Christmas card messages as a "sad but accurate" reflection of modern Christmas.

The poll was released on the day that MPs at Parliament's Westminster Hall held a special debate on whether there was "Christianophobia" in the UK. Mr Pritchard, claiming that public expression of faith was being attacked by political correctness, urged the government not to surrender the UK's Christian heritage.

Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said: "Christians are not being pushed out of public life. If anything they are over-represented."