Plus Ones Are Welcome at the Easter Table, According to ChristianMingle Poll

BEVERLY HILLS, CA--(Marketwire - Mar 28, 2013) -  ChristianMingle.com®, the largest and fastest growing online community for Christian singles, today released the results of a series of polls asking its members how well romance and Easter mix. The polls reveal that men and women are surprisingly lax about celebrating family traditions with a budding new relationship.

Twenty eight percent of members surveyed said they would invite someone with whom they've shared only a few dates to celebrate Easter with the family, with men (32 percent) being slightly more likely than women (25 percent) to bring a date home to break bread with mom and dad.

"Easter is a time when families come together to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and embrace the premise of Christianity," says Ashley Reccord, ChristianMingle Community Manager. "For many people, such a joyous occasion presents an ideal time to introduce a blossoming relationship to the family."

Poll findings reveal that relationships don't have to be serious to earn face time with the family, even on an important holiday like Easter. Nineteen percent of men and twelve percent of women would bring a first date to a family Easter celebration.

In addition to sharing time with family, prayer and community play an important role when it comes to spending Easter with a significant other. Fifty six percent of ChristianMingle members agree their favorite way to celebrate Easter with their sweetheart is to go to church, while Easter brunch with close friends and family comes in second (35 percent for both men and women). Only two percent of ChristianMingle members said they would ditch their date to spend Easter with their respective families.

"Easter is a time to spend with loved ones, so it comes as no surprise that the majority of our members would welcome a new or serious relationship into their family traditions, and their church, with open arms," adds Reccord.

Full questions and results are below:

Q: Would you take your significant other to Easter brunch/dinner to meet your family for the first time?

• Only if we've been dating for several months and it's someone I could potentially marry: 45% (Women: 47%, Men: 42%)
• Sure! Seems like a great opportunity to get everyone together and integrate my date into my family: 42% (Women: 41%, Men: 44%)
• Meeting my family is not a big deal to me, so it makes no difference: 8% (Women: 6%, Men: 11%)
• No way, Easter is definitely a family occasion and should not include new relationships: 5% (Women: 5%, Men: 3%)

Q: How long should you date someone before including them in your family's Easter traditions?

• 4-6 months is long enough: 36% (Women: 40%, Men: 30%)
• As long as we've been on a few dates, I'll invite them to all my family functions: 28% (Women: 25%, Men: 32%)
• At least a year, once we know it is a serious, committed relationship: 19% (Women: 20%, Men: 17%)
• Doesn't matter, I'll bring a first date to Easter with my family: 15% (Women: 12%, Men: 19%)
• We need to be married or engaged already: 2% (Women: 3%, Men: 2%)

Q: What's your favorite way to celebrate Easter with your significant other?

• Go to church together: 56% (Women: 58%, Men: 50%)
• Easter brunch with close friends and family: 35% (Women: 35%, Men: 35%)
• Make a nice Easter ham and have dinner with just the two of us: 4% (Women: 3%, Men: 7%)
• Easter egg hunt: 3% (Women: 2%, Men: 4%)
• We don't celebrate together and instead go be with our own families: 2% (Women: 2%, Men: 3%)

Q: What is an appropriate gift to bring to your significant other's family Easter celebration?

• Flowers: 43% (Women: 48%, Men: 36%)
• Easter basket full of goodies: 36% (Women: 38%, Men: 35%)
• Nothing: 8% (Women: 5%, Men: 12%)
• Wine: 8% (Women: 6%, Men: 11%)
• A Card: 4% (Women: 3%, Men: 6%)

For more information about ChristianMingle, visit www.christianmingle.com.

About ChristianMingle
ChristianMingle® (www.ChristianMingle.com) is the leading and fastest growing online community for Christian singles. In addition, ChristianMingle is a part of Gospel Media Group™, a premier network of online Christian resources which is also comprised of believe.com™ (www.believe.com), Faith.com™ (www.faith.com), DailyBibleVerse.com™ (www.DailyBibleVerse.com) and ChristianCards.net™ (www.ChristianCards.net).