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20th December, 2024
Between 10th-17th December 2024, PFA Research asked the What Cornwall Thinks panel for their thoughts on Christmas.
A third of Cornish residents are planning something uniquely Cornish as part of their Christmas celebrations in 2024. For most of these, this means celebrating with wonderful local food and drink (Cornish clotted cream with the Christmas pud being extremely popular and, perhaps more surprisingly, Cornish crab sandwiches). Others like to shop local to send Cornish-made gifts, attend local events such as carol singing or to make the most of the beautiful countryside (wild water swimming on New Year’s Day, anyone?!). Some still keep up old Cornish Christmas traditions such as the Kissing Bough and Guise Dancing.
It feels like Christmas starts earlier every year, doesn’t it?
Two thirds of Cornish residents feel the earliest they want shops and public spaces to be putting out the decs (and playing “Last Christmas” on a loop over the tannoy…) is the first week of December / start of Advent. Only one in five think it is acceptable for this to start in November (let alone September…) and even fewer (1 in 12 ) say they don’t care! Hardly anyone (1 in 14) expects (or hopes) that the shops would hold out any later than the start of December.
People are likely to start putting their own decs up at home a bit later than they expect to see them in the shops – whilst two in five will have done so on or by the start of December, two in five wait till mid-December before fetching the tinsel out of the attic. One in ten wait until just before the Big Day and one in ten of those who are celebrating Christmas are choosing not to do so with decorations at home this year.
Two thirds would like to see the Christmas decorations come down in the shops and public spaces in the first week of January / around Twelfth Night. A quarter would like this to happen sooner, either Boxing Day or New Year’s Day.
One in ten do not intend to celebrate Christmas this year, mostly because they feel it has become too commercial and expensive. There are also nearly a quarter who are dialling back the scale of the festivities this year, be that fewer (or no) Christmas parties, decorations, Christmas shopping or card sending this year. Again, this is either because of Christmas having become too commercial / expensive, or for personal / family reasons. But there are no Christmas Grinches – no one said that because they weren’t celebrating Christmas at all or as much that they wanted others to celebrate any less.
According to the Bank of England (How much do we spend during the festive season? | Bank of England) each household spends an average of £713 more in December than at other months. It is always very hard to estimate, but of those planning to spend anything at all on celebrations this Christmas (and able to hazard a guess on their budget!) Cornish residents think they will be spending a lot less (£489) than the national average. Two thirds say this is about what they spent last year, 1 in 5 say they will be spending a little less this year. So whilst it feels like Christmas is getting more commercial, this seems to be less true in Cornwall than the rest of the country. Either that or we really underestimate how much Christmas is actually costing us!
Two thirds of Cornish residents will be celebrating Christmas the same as last year and a few more (1 in 20) going bigger with the festivities in 2024 than ever before. And of those in Cornwall who will be celebrating Christmas this year, the most popular way to do so is gift giving (although one in seven even say they will not be exchanging any gifts this year).
Over half also celebrate with a special meal (most go for the traditional turkey, but beef and vegetarian options are also popular), decorating the home, spending time with friends and family and watching Christmas telly. 1 in 3 will be wearing a Christmas jumper, 1 in 4 putting up a Christmas stocking for Santa and 1 in 5 attending a religious service.
A quarter of those celebrating Christmas in Cornwall this year will include charitable contributions as part of their marking of the season – two thirds of them donating money, and the rest either giving gifts to those in need or giving their time.
Residents of Cornwall can join the panel here: What Cornwall Thinks