New study reveals rollercoaster of emotion Brits experience in the Christmas season
Sunday 24th December revealed as the point joy peaks over the festive period
The 12 rows of Christmas revealed - from money worries to in-laws behaviour causing spats
Brits will eat four turkey dinners and eight mince pies on average in December
Study released by free TV on demand service UKTV Play to launch its festive schedule
Brits festive joy peaks on Christmas Eve according to new research, suggesting the build-up is enjoyed more than the big day when it comes to the holiday celebrations.
The survey of 2,000 UK adults, specially commissioned by free TV on-demand service UKTV Play to launch its festive schedule, was led by psychologist Emma Kenny and provides a fascinating insight into the emotional rollercoaster that the nation experiences over the festive period.
The research suggests that for most the build-up to Christmas is better than the day itself, with the majority of festive traditions over by the 25th. Nearly half of Brits (46%) said decorating the tree was one of the reasons for their festive joy, with over a third (36%) cheered by Christmas shopping, and 30% boosted by visiting seasonal markets and listening to festive music.
Top 10 activities that give Brits joy in the run-up to Christmas:
Decorating the tree - 46%
Going Christmas shopping for presents - 36%
Watching Christmas specials on TV - 31%
Hearing Christmas music playing in shops - 30%
Visiting a Christmas market - 30%
Doing Christmas food shopping - 29%
Seeing Christmas lights / going to a lights switch on - 28%
Decorating your home - 28%
Finding the perfect present for a loved one - 26%
Writing Christmas cards - 25%
UKTV Play
Three quarters of British adults (76%) also credited a lack of money worries to their positive pre-Christmas boost, compared to the burden of debt that often contributes to the post-Christmas blues.
Conversely, the study revealed that on Christmas Day the jollity starts to plunge. One in six (17%) admitted they experience feelings of frustration and even rage towards others once the festive period gets going. Over half (55%) of Brits have at least one argument, and 4% have a staggering 10 or more arguments.
The 12 rows of Christmas, according to Brits, are revealed as:
Money worries thanks to over-spending on presents and entertaining - 15%
Behaviour of the in-laws or other family members - 14%
Tidying up ahead of having family or friends over - 14%
Spending time with the in-laws - 12%
Remote control wars over the TV schedule - 11%
The forgotten food item in the big shop that turns out to be a crucial ingredient - 10%
What to watch on the TV and what to record - 9%
Who does the washing up after Christmas lunch/dinner - 9%
Disappointment over presents - 8%
What time to have Christmas lunch/dinner - 8%
When to open presents - before breakfast or later in the day - 7%
Having the in-laws over (whose turn it is and who gets invited) - 7%
Brits experience an exhausting rollercoaster of emotions on Christmas Day, including fatigue, joy and happiness. On average, seven minutes are spent crying, 10 minutes are spent feeling bored and six minutes are spent arguing. While the majority of these disputes will be short-lived (74%), over a quarter (26%) admitted they have experienced a serious argument with a loved one over Christmas that has lasted into the New Year or beyond.
Psychologist Emma Kenny said,
Were all familiar with the excitement that comes when we hear our first Christmas song of the season, which only builds as we near Christmas Day. However, its still surprising to learn that our joy peaks before the big day, when we descend into all too familiar family dynamics and arguments following a month of turkey dinners and mince pies!
The survey was commissioned to celebrate the launch of the festive scheduling on free TV on demand service, UKTV Play, which will feature brilliant programming such as box sets of Taskmaster, The White Princess and Red Dwarf plus a whole host of Christmas specials including Top of the Pops and Steptoe and Son.
Food also unsurprisingly plays a big part on Christmas Day too, as Brits spend an average of 1 hour 25 minutes cooking and even longer eating, at 1 hour 28 minutes. Christmas fatigue may also be prompted by overindulging weeks before the 25th - the nation eats four turkey dinners on average and at least eight mince pies during December. Brits consume six units of alcohol per day on average, the equivalent of around four glasses of wine - or a total of 21 bottles in December.
Technology also has a big impact, as Brits settle down to watch TV for an average of 2 and a half hours on Christmas Day and spend 47 minutes posting festive highlights on social media.
If Christmas Day were a minute long, Brits would spend on average:
16 seconds sleeping
8 seconds watching TV
4 seconds eating
4 seconds travelling
4 seconds cooking or helping to prepare food
4 seconds cleaning
3 seconds playing games or playing outside
3 seconds napping
2 seconds shopping in the sales online
2 seconds on social media
2 seconds going for a walk with the family or the dog
2 seconds doing sport or exercising
2 seconds arguing or sorting out disagreements
4 seconds doing everything else (brushing teeth, making phone calls etc)
Enjoy hours of festive shows with free TV on-demand service UKTV Plays Christmas scheduling
Follow UKTV Play on @UKTVPlay on Twitter and UKTV Play on Facebook
Notes to Editors About UKTV
UKTV is a commercial broadcaster reaching over 40m viewers every month.
The award-winning independent has eleven imaginative brands - UKTV Play, Dave, W, Gold, Alibi, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home, Eden and Good Food. These include the two most popular non-PSB channels in the UK and account for nearly 10% of t
Most recent headlines
04/08/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....
03/06/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...
08/05/2024
NEEDHAM, Mass. The International Data Corporation is predicting that worldwide spending on telecom services and pay TV services will increase by 1.4% in 2024 to...
08/05/2024
CUPERTINO, Calif. In a notable development for news and live video production, Apple has unveiled a number of significant upgrades to its Final Cut Pro software...
08/05/2024
Pliant Technologies has announced that it will be presenting its new SmartBoom LITE Headset at InfoComm 2024 (Booth C5116). The latest updates include enhanceme...
08/05/2024
SAN FRANCISCO Fox's ad-supported streaming service Tubi has launched Stubios, a fan-fueled studio for aspiring filmmakers and their fans that the company sa...
08/05/2024
SAN ANTONIO, Texas Five more stations have launched NextGen TV service, bringing to nine the number of local TV services on-air with ATSC 3.0....
08/05/2024
TYSONS, Va. Tegna Inc. has announced that Greg Retsinas has been named president and general manager at KGW, Tegna's NBC affiliate serving the Portland area...
08/05/2024
08 05 2024 - Media release Olivia Colman and John Lithgow Star in Sophie Hyde's New Project JIMPA
Olivia Coleman and John Lithgow in JIMPA. Photo credit: ...
08/05/2024
OpenDrives Joins AWS Partner Network
Brie Clayton May 7, 2024
0 Comments
Atlas software-defined platform now available via AWS trusted partner network...
08/05/2024
Animate AI Matte Paintings in After Effects
Graham Quince May 7, 2024
0 Comments
Arguably the best video use for AI generated images is Matte Painting...
08/05/2024
Throw Expression in Adobe After Effects
Andy Ford May 7, 2024
0 Comments
The Throw expression is a time-saver in After Effects. It allows you to mov...
08/05/2024
Join FilmLight in Toronto: Baselight 6.1, Nara and more
Brie Clayton May 7, 2024
0 Comments
Thursday 30th May, from 2:30PM, Hosted by Alter Ego 488 ...
08/05/2024
Gray Television reported a first-quarter profit as advertising revenues rebounded to above pre-COVID-19 levels....
08/05/2024
The Today show shared the performers on its summer concert series, which feature...
08/05/2024
Lewis Dodley, longtime anchor for Spectrum News NY1, will retire at the end of May. He's been on the air at the Charter Communications-owned local news chan...
08/05/2024
Scripps Sports said it plans to air a new studio show when a new season of WNBA Friday Night Spotlight starts May 24....
08/05/2024
Advertisers are looking to reach the right audiences and tell their stories inside compelling content, Karen Kovacs, president of client partnerships at NBCUniv...
08/05/2024
RT has today announced that Doireann Garrihy has decided to leave RT 2FM after five years. Doireann will present her final 2FM Breakfast with Doireann, Donncha...
08/05/2024
Amid an AI revolution sweeping through trillion-dollar industries worldwide, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang will deliver a keynote address ahead of COMPUTE...
08/05/2024
AI tools accelerated by NVIDIA RTX have made it easier than ever to edit and wor...
08/05/2024
Professor emeritus John (Jack) Johnson elected to the National Academy of Sciences Johnson's multi-disciplinary research has been instrumental in shaping ou...
08/05/2024
zweiB updates to latest version of R&S CLIPSTER Specialist in deliverables for cinema, events and trade shows
Rohde & Schwarz, a global leader in broadcast...
07/05/2024
NAB Show 2024
Utah Scientific rocked the 2024 NAB Show in Las Vegas, unveiling two new game-changers in video signal management.
Our primary focus this yea...
07/05/2024
7th May 2024 The nations favourite comedy channel Gold has teamed up with the ma...
07/05/2024
There's something special about summer. We're not sure whether it's the warmer weather, the longer days, or something else a bit more magical, but s...
07/05/2024
NITV appoints Michael Rennie as Presenter and Senior Producer for NITV News
Media releases
NITV has announced the appointment of Michael Rennie as Presenter...
07/05/2024
The ability for line-of-site tactical voice and data networks to seamlessly traverse over Satellite Communications is an emerging requirement to assure warfight...
07/05/2024
On April 5, 2024, the L3Harris Avionics Products Repair Station (NN2R037L) in Gr...
07/05/2024
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
07/05/2024
Share this article
width=32 height=32 loading=lazy data-lazy-src=https://apogeedigital.com/app/themes/juniper-theme/src/img/icons/facebook-purple.svg />
wid...
07/05/2024
BURBANK, Calif. The Walt Disney Company has finally delivered some from profits from its hefty streaming investments, with the second quarter of its fiscal year...
07/05/2024
Bonnie Hammer, vice chair of NBCUniversal, and Jen Psaki, MSNBC host, read from their new books at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan Wednesday, May 8. Hammer's...
07/05/2024
Paramount Plus has ordered the series Crutch, a comedy that is a spinoff of CBS comedy The Neighborhood. Tracy Morgan stars....
07/05/2024
Edward J. and Melody Thomas Scott and Lidia Bastianich will receive Lifetime Achievement honors at the 51st annual Daytime Emmy Awards in June, the National Aca...
07/05/2024
The 2024 Giants of Broadcasting & Electronic Arts luncheon and awards ceremony happens in New York November 12, and the honorees are Al Roker, weather and featu...
07/05/2024
Dabl Network has added The Wayans Bros., The Jamie Foxx Show, Living Single and Everybody Hates Chris to its weekday and weekend lineups. Those shows join the l...
07/05/2024
After winning a proxy fight, The Walt Disney Co. said its entertainment business turned a profit and added subscribers in its fiscal second quarter....
07/05/2024
NBA Entertainment is closing out the second season of its series Pass the Rock with a look at Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs, the league's rooki...
07/05/2024
Syncbak, which provides stations with streaming capabilities, said it is rebranding as Zeam Media....
07/05/2024
Samsung has made a deal with Magnolia Pictures that will bring titles from Magnolia to the Samsung TV Plus free streaming platform....
07/05/2024
Amazon, which has added commercials to Amazon Prime Video, is rolling out new interactive ad formats that will enable advertisers to engage streamers and sell s...
07/05/2024
Syncbak, a 15 year-old provider of streaming tech for local broadcast stations has rebranded itself, adopting the name of its streaming service launched in Febr...
07/05/2024
POST Luxembourgs journey with TAG Video underscores how finding a vendor who und...
07/05/2024
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. New findings from Hub Entertainment Research provides extensive data showing that the majority of consumers will opt for lower cost ad-supporte...
07/05/2024
NEW YORK The Library of American Broadcasting Foundation (LABF) has announced th...
07/05/2024
CBS News has named Lindsey Reiser an anchor and correspondent for CBS News 24/7, the network's live, streaming news service. Reiser, who was most recently a...
07/05/2024
NEEDHAM, Mass. After more than two years of decline, worldwide tablet shipments posted modest year-over-year growth of 0.5% in the first quarter of 2024 (1Q24),...
07/05/2024
ESPN is reporting that April was a record-setting month as the network delivered its best April prime time audience on record, dating back more than 30 years....
New study reveals rollercoaster of emotion Brits experience in the Christmas season 
