New polls around the actual beginning of Christmas have revealed that opinions on the start date of the holiday are not quite shared by Plymouth’s public.
Everyone knows the classic ‘12 days of Christmas’ expectation but few people agree with this time length for what they describe as “such a special period”.
We surveyed a wide range of ages and found that the majority believed that the first of December was in fact when the festive season commenced, with 55% of the votes.
Louie Smith, a young apprentice said, “It’s just perfect, you don’t have to wait too long for the big day, but you also have enough time to build up the occasion.”
“Most radio stations have Christmas songs on from the first anyway so it would be pointless to resist when you could be getting in the spirit.”
Others take it further, which we found when 30% of participants told us they started their holiday build-up from as early as the 20th of November.
The most common reason for this answer was that participants preferred to use Chrimbo as an escape from the “miserable winter.”
Mia O’Keefe, a student said that “Halloween, Bonfire night and Christmas are all distractions from how cold and dull winter can be.”
She continued “I feel like a lot of people think the same thing, why would you want to be sat around just waiting for mid-December when you could be preparing and getting excited?”
The other 15% of voters stuck to the traditional view and agreed that there are 12 days of Christmas and no more. The minority of voters in this category expanded on this and said they begin preparations when they break up from school/work.
“If you start Christmas too early it’s easy to overdo the whole period.” Said Geoffrey Allen, a chef.
“I’ve tried starting up earlier and when the 25th comes round it’s just not what I expected, and it ruins it for me”
With so many split opinions, it is hard to deduce when Christmas actually starts or what caused this slippage from tradition but if one things for certain, the Plymouth population sure know how to tailor the final holiday of the year to their own wants and needs.