Families Celebrating 32 Days Of Christmas This Year

Now that December is underway, it’s definitely time to start thinking about Christmas! In fact, many of you may already have started the festive celebrations.

It seems that we no longer abide by the 12 days of Christmas – yes, this is more than just a song – and instead we spend an entire month celebrating the special day.

According to new research from ChannelMum.com almost 40% of households start their Christmas celebrations almost as soon as they’ve opened the first window on their advent calendar, not finishing them until the start of January.

This doesn’t just mean getting trees up early – with a fifth of people deciding to get the decs up in November – as some families even start opening presents before Christmas Day – some how opening gifts before Father Christmas has paid them a visit!

Even advent calendars have been giving a bit of an upgrade, with over a quarter of families saying they think giving a gift a day is a good way to celebrate. Many advent calendars also include token gifts rather than chocolate, causing spending on them to go up by almost 60 per cent this year! We think we’ll stick with our choccy calendars…

However, some families are spending more on “reverse calendars” in a bid to gift a little bit of festive cheer. One in ten actually pop a non-perishable item of food in a box each day, donating it to a food bank on Christmas Eve in order to help others and teach their children about the importance of giving, which seems like a great idea to us.

Christmas seems to be an increasingly important part of families’ years, with 16 per cent of the mums who were surveyed saying they save for it all year round in order to afford the gifts, decorations and food that make up their Christmas.

Nowadays, only eight per cent of families in the UK stick to the traditional 12 days of celebration, with 14 per cent choosing to get festive for 14 days instead, showing that we all go a little bit mad when December gets closer.

However you celebrate Christmas, give gifts and get the tinsel on the tree, there’s no denying that it’s the most wonderful time of the year.