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 | Lancashire Times A Voice of the Free Press |
1:00 AM 30th November 2024
lifestyle
Festive Items Brits Are Giving Up, According To New Study
Image by Renette Haramis from Pixabay
This is according to a new study from a packaging supplier, Carrier Bag Shop, which analysed online searches for 31 common festive items since 2020. Using John Lewis’s Christmas categories and Google Keyword Planner, the researchers identified the items that are no longer in Brits’ good graces.
Christmas wreath is the most underwhelming festive item in the UK. In November and December 2020, the British public searched for 'Christmas wreath' 348,700 times per month, on average. Enthusiasm nearly halved since then (-46%), with just 208,800 monthly searches in the lead-up to Christmas last year.
Cranberry sauce is the second least wanted item on Brits’ holiday shopping list, compared to three years ago. Just before the first Christmas during the Covid-19 pandemic, there were 84,355 online searches for it. This collapsed by 45% three years later, with just 46,505 seeking it out online.
Christmas stockings saw the third largest drop in demand among festive items in the past three years. On average, British residents searched for Christmas stockings 243,275 times a month in November and December of 2020. This collapsed by 44% to just 136,835 last year.
The festive items going out of style next are Christmas lights, baubles, Christmas trees, festive wrapping paper, Christmas cards, Yorkshire pudding and gingerbread houses.
Conversely, the nation is having a growing obsession with Christmas crackers and pigs in blankets, up 30% each since 2020. Bucks Fizz and stuffing were 24% and, respectively, 18% more popular last Christmas than three years before.
Top Ten Festive Items Brits Are Giving Up
| # | Item | Total online searches in November and December, 2023 | Change in online searches in Nov-Dec 2023 compared to 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Christmas wreath | 208,800 | -46% |
| 2 | Cranberry sauce | 46,505 | -45% |
| 3 | Christmas stockings | 136,835 | -44% |
| 4 | Christmas lights | 279,955 | -42% |
| 5 | Baubles | 120,790 | -39% |
| 6 | Christmas tree | 1,322,540 | -37% |
| 7 | Festive wrapping paper | 210 | -34% |
| 8 | Christmas cards | 346,510 | -33% |
| 9 | Yorkshire pudding | 392,155 | -31% |
| 10 | Gingerbread house | 177,255 | -28% |
As for items that were the most searched overall before and during the winter holidays last year, Christmas trees, Christmas jumpers and advent calendars topped the list. Brits searched for the first two 1.4-1.5 million times a month, on average. Advent calendars raked in over half a million searches in the lead-up to Christmas last year.
The festive items that Brits have been skipping lately are festive wrapping paper, searched only a modest 420 times per month last year; cranberry sauce, with 37,645 average monthly searches, and stuffing, with 43,900 enquiries.
UK’s Top Ten Most Popular Festive Items
| # | Item | Total online searches November-December 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Christmas tree | 1,544,109 |
| 2 | Christmas jumper | 1,415,275 |
| 3 | Advent calendar | 541,165 |
| 4 | Yorkshire pudding | 405,573 |
| 5 | Christmas crackers | 369,905 |
| 6 | Christmas cards | 369,899 |
| 7 | Christmas lights | 323,109 |
| 8 | Christmas wreath | 260,561 |
| 9 | Eggnog | 260,036 |
| 10 | Mulled Wine | 219,585 |
We all went a bit over-the-top in our first pandemic Christmas.
Though you can make do without some items, there is no holiday without a Christmas tree. If it were a real tree, not a plastic one, it would make sense to look for one every year, but it also does not make much sense to throw out a perfectly fine plastic Christmas tree.
Besides cutting down on our plastic waste and saving us a pretty penny, that old plastic Christmas tree can hold sentimental value from the many holidays it witnessed with our closest friends and family. If you have already bought a plastic Christmas tree, please do not bin it – save it and cherish it.