Christmas is one of the most important times of the year for many families. 88% of Brits celebrate it, making it the most widely observed holiday in the UK! But not everyone celebrates the big day in exactly the same way. From when you open presents to what’s on your dinner plate, Brits have weird and wonderful traditions that make Christmas merry and bright.
But what is the best way to celebrate Christmas? That’s what we’re here to find out! thortful surveyed 1,000 people across the UK to decide what the best way to celebrate Christmas truly is.
Getting into the festive spirit
For some, the Christmas songs are on from the moment you wake up, for others, they might be turned up when you’re roasting potatoes. But either way, your festive playlist keeps spirits high all day long. Which is why we just had to find out what the all-time favourite Christmas song in the UK is, and as expected, it’s a close competition…
Coming in fourth place, we have the many versions of ‘Silent Night’ by Frank Sinatra, Kelly Clarkson and various artists.
A whopping five songs share third place:
- ‘White Christmas’ – Bing Crosby
- ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ – Bobby Helms
- ‘Feliz Navidad’ – Jose Feliciano
- ‘Driving Home for Christmas’ – Chris Rea
- ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ – Slade
People aged 18 – 34 and 45 – 54 love a bit of The Pogues and Mariah Carey with ‘Fairytale of New York’ and ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’, pushing them to the second spot.
But coming in first is…
‘Last Christmas’ by Wham! (obviously).
The songs that Brits don’t seem to love so much are:
- ‘The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)’ by Nat King Cole
- ‘Blue Christmas’ by Elvis Presley
- ‘Santa Baby’ by Eartha Kitt
- And ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ by Judy Garland
The best Christmas movie
In the spirit of favourites, let’s talk about Christmas movies. What festive films are loved across Britain?
Home Alone takes the top spot, Elf in second and Love Actually close behind.
Interestingly, people between 25 and 54 all share Home Alone as their favourite film, while 18 – 24 year olds chose Miracle on 34th Street, 55 – 64 year olds voted Die Hard their favourite and over 65s selected It’s A Wonderful Life in the top spot.
As for the least favourite films, overall, Why Him? takes the last spot with Bad Santa not far behind. For 18-24 year olds, Santa Clause and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation received no votes.
Christmas traditions
Christmas isn’t just about presents and food, British families get up to all sorts on the 25th December.
Board games, Christmas cracker jokes, and a pint at the pub, were all voted the top favourite Christmas traditions in the UK. The not-so-favourites included swimming, wearing the same pyjamas and crafting or baking.
Zooming in by region, however, tells a different story. Starting from the top, Scotland loves Christmas cracker jokes, but doesn’t care for swimming, and swimming isn’t on the agenda for Northern Irish families either.
In North and Central England, you won’t catch many wearing the same pyjamas, but you may find families sitting around a board game or laughing over a Christmas cracker joke. Taking the top spot for the South of England is a drink at the local pub.
No matter where you are in the UK, you can bet families on Christmas Day will be laughing over jokes, playing games and definitely not swimming!
Opening presents
It may be a surprise to hear, but not all Brits open their presents on Christmas Day each year. Can you believe 5% of Brits open their presents (and eat their Christmas dinner) on Christmas Eve?
Moving onto how families open presents, 16% of people claim everyone opens theirs at once, while 14% do it one present and one person at a time.
Norwich, London, Cardiff and Nottingham all have an almost 50/50 split between opening presents all at once, or one at a time. But Belfast, Leeds, Edinburgh and Southampton are strongly leaning towards opening them all at once.
The biggest advocate for opening presents one at a time are Sheffield families and people 55 and over.
What’s on your plate?
Let’s turn our attention to arguably the most important decision of all, the Christmas dinner.
We asked respondents what non-traditional food items they have on their plate at Christmas, and we found that cauliflower cheese is a unanimous vote, with nut roast in second and Yorkshire puddings right behind that.
As you could probably guess, Yorkshire puddings are the top-voted food item in the North of England, and a popular choice in Central England and Wales, but in Northern Ireland, they received no votes at all.
Some more surprising items included curry – a staple for people aged 65 and over – pasta, which was supported by all age groups, and salmon en croute that had the heart of older age brackets.
Along with what we add, we also asked what we remove from a Christmas dinner, and the responses were…controversial.
Turkey took the number one spot for items removed from a Christmas dinner, a popular deduction in Central England and Northern Ireland. Sprouts were a close second, with all but the over-65s removing the veggie from their plates, and in third is pigs in blankets, which was the most popular cut for South West England.
By region, Northern Ireland is most likely to remove gravy from their dinners, while Wales, Central and Northern England were the biggest advocates for it.
When’s the right time to eat?
The optimum time to eat Christmas dinner is at 2pm, according to 26% of respondents. Only 2% eat dinner before midday, and 3% eat later than 9pm.
Those who eat earlier than noon are primarily between 18 – 34, while those few eating into the night are 35 – 54. Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales agree on 3pm as the prime time for eating, while the whole of England sways towards the 2pm slot.
What order do you celebrate?
At last, we have the perfect itinerary for Christmas Day. We selected the following activities for celebrating Christmas Day (in no particular order):
- Morning walk
- Christmas dinner
- King’s speech
- Open presents
- Entertainment
Across every region, the most popular agenda is opening presents first, followed by Christmas dinner, the King’s Speech and finishing the day with entertainment. This is agreed by almost all age groups, bar 35 – 44, who prefer a morning walk, followed by dinner, presents and entertainment.
Despite this, the majority of respondents said they don’t watch the King’s speech on Christmas Day.
What has gone wrong at Christmas?
Lastly, what about the most common Christmas disasters? Well, 24% of people mentioned the issue of overcooked or undercooked food, with 16% forgetting to take food out of the freezer (we’ve all been there).
21% brought up the classic issue of family arguments, while 12% are prone to eating too much and falling asleep before it’s time for festive games…
A lucky few (21%) however, said that nothing has ever gone wrong for them at Christmas!
How should you celebrate?
Christmas looks different for every family. It’s about quality time, laughter and celebration, no matter how you do it.
Spread some festive cheer in the run-up to the big day by sending your loved ones cards they’ll laugh at and treasure on their mantelpiece. We have a range of witty, pretty and downright hilarious Christmas cards to celebrate the festive period with your nearest and dearest.
And if you’re looking for more fun insights, just check out the rest of the thortful blog!
