A massive 42 per cent of Brits plan on giving Father Christmas vegan food when he comes down the chimney on Christmas Eve
Some of Britain’s oldest Christmas traditions are disappearing, with festive pastimes such as sending a round robin letter and kissing under the mistletoe replaced by more modern equivalents.
According to the poll by Argos, 42 per cent of Brits will ensure Father Christmas and Rudolph have a vegan-friendly Christmas, with just a quarter of households (25 per cent) offering up a mince pie and almost eight out of ten (78 per cent) banning milk from Santa’s Christmas Eve buffet.
More people now give their children Christmas Eve boxes of presents to ensure they sleep peacefully before the big day (10 per cent do this) than spend time together making a gingerbread house (seven per cent), go Christmas carolling (eight per cent) or roast chestnuts on an open fire (four per cent).
According to weary Brits, the most annoying modern festive traditions are using the hashtag #blessed and posting a picture of a mound of presents on social media, dressing up pets in Christmas outfits and putting presents straight onto an online auction site once they’ve been lovingly given.
The seeming obsession with having a social media-friendly Christmas enrages plenty of Britons, with competitiveness over elf on the shelf pictures, watching celebrity and influencer advent calendars and standing on a chair to Instagram your Christmas dinner among the top ten festive annoyances.
When polled as to the worst gift they’d ever received, Brits’ incredible responses included tinned pies, a pot of meat paste and toilet roll***
However, one tradition that looks set to last is circling products in the Argos catalogue. Some 27 per cent of adults still circle the gifts they want in a physical book, while a further 17 per cent day use a TV listings guide such as the Radio Times to plot their festive viewing schedule.
This year, Argos put the 46-year festive tradition of circling products in its catalogue front and centre in its acclaimed Christmas advert, with an adorable family drumming together after seeing the product in the pages of this year’s festive edition of the ‘Book of Dreams’.
An Argos spokesperson said: “We know that Christmas can’t stay the same forever. However, while our Christmases have moved with the times, some of our festive traditions are here to stay. Making your Christmas list by circling your favourite things in the Argos catalogue has been a British staple for almost 50 years, and long may it continue.”