If you do not see that many, or any, smiling faces on the streets of Bulgaria as people head out with grim determination to do Festive Season shopping, a new poll may suggest the reason.
 
According to a poll presented in Sofia on December 23 2009, about 22 per cent of Bulgarians currently described themselves as happy – though, notably enough, that figure is four per cent higher than it was in 2007, pre-credit crunch days.
 
Close to 17 per cent of Bulgarians were unhappy while the poll, as reported by Bulgarian news agency BTA, found that 61 per cent said that they were neither happy nor unhappy.
 
Which, if in paraphrase of the carol only 22 per cent of Bulgarians let nothing them dismay, as they trudge the sludge on the way to what is meant to be a Merry Christmas, may account for the lack of smiles.
 
It may be disillusionment about the European Union, apparently, too.
 
ASSA-M polling agency said the previous day that 40 per cent of Bulgarians regarded the country’s membership of the EU as "futile", Darik Radio said.
 
The pollsters questioned 1180 Bulgarians aged 18 to 60, who said that while they saw the benefits of the country’s membership of the EU as high living standards, justice, order, security and free travel – but the actual benefits were concentrated solely in the capital city, Sofia.
 
Yet, the survey found, Bulgarians saw in EU membership a number of negatives – high prices, inflation, crime, prostitution, illegal trafficking in people and drugs, severe regulations and restrictions.
 
The EU aside, maybe the problem is money, even though – according to the ASSA-M poll, four per cent of Bulgarians believed that there was no economic crisis, and eight per cent said that the media exaggerated the economic crisis.
 
However, 56 per cent said that Bulgaria was in the grip of a "deep economic crisis" while 32 per cent believed the crisis to be "moderate".
 
This picture stands in interesting comparison to the announcement by the Bulgarian Industrial Association on December 22, that every second business expected the economic crisis to deepen.
 
Ninety-one per cent of the businesses polled by the association said that sales had dropped in 2009, although four per cent reported increases in sales. Ninety-six per cent said that the business climate had worsened.
 
Separately, BBSS Gallup International said that 70 to 80 per cent of Bulgarians would be celebrating Christmas and New Year at home, spending about 150 leva – a slight increase compared to the Festive Season 2008 – on gifts, decorations and other trifles.
 
Depending on your purchasing power, and whichever figures about unemployment, inflation and other economic indicators you choose to believe, 150 leva is not a lot of money, but official figures indicate that Bulgarians simply do not have a lot of money (unless they are footballers or other categories of folk currently being scrutinised by tax collectors).
 
Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, said in a survey published earlier in December 2009 that Bulgarians have the lowest purchasing power in the EU, about 41 per cent of the average.
 
In Sofia on December 23, a high-end Vitosha Boulevard clothing shop boasted a shop window sign "Thank God it’s Christmas". Whether there was a fundamental religious message intended is not known; the sign was in English, not Bulgarian, and therefore possibly lost on at least some of the passersby; perhaps those who do not know whether they are happy or not.