Christmas should be about relaxation and celebration with loved ones. Instead, the pressure to pull off the perfect day leaves many people burnt out before the new year even begins. A recent study by Parkdean Resorts reveals that 57% of Brits find the festive season stressful, prompting 2 in 3 (68%) to consider going away this year to avoid the traditional to-do list and guest preparations.
The 53-hour festive chore breakdown
To explore why this stress is driving interest in holiday bookings, Parkdean partnered with Jane Ollis, a medical biochemist and founder of the nerve-regulating wearable SONA. The study asked Brits to log the time they spent on seasonal tasks, revealing an average of 53 hours of unpaid labour. This equates to more than seven standard working days.
Brits spend their preparation time on the following
- Shopping for presents and decorations: 15 hours
- Tidying and redecorating beforehand: 12 hours
- Cleaning and tidying afterwards: 11 hours
- Cooking Christmas dinner: 8 hours
- Doing the food shopping: 7 hours
Shopping for presents was identified as the single most stress-inducing activity (38%), followed by cooking (17%), balancing work commitments (12%), and food shopping (9%).
Ollis explained why these activities can trigger intense stress: “Christmas stress isn’t a character flaw or a failure of festive spirit. It’s biology doing exactly what it’s designed to do. Your nervous system can’t tell the difference between a sabre-toothed tiger and a 14-person lunch you’re hosting on four hours’ sleep.”
“Crowded shops, financial pressure, family friction, less sleep, more alcohol, darker days and the relentless choreography of the season all get tallied up by your body, which quietly flips into survival mode.”
Christmas planning begins as early as summer
With so many tasks to prepare for, 51% of Brits worry each year that they have not started planning early enough. In response, 25% begin thinking about Christmas before August, while 50% start in September or October.
This behaviour is reflected online. UK Google searches for festive topics typically begin to rise at the end of July, reaching 4.4 million searches in August last year.
The shift toward festive staycations
The burden of festive preparation has given rise to a new travel trend. More than half (51%) of Brits are considering a trip for Christmas this year, while a further 17% already intend to go away.
A spokesperson for Parkdean Resorts noted that Christmas holidays in the UK are growing rapidly among young families: “Christmas is supposed to be a time to unwind, slow down and spend quality time with loved ones. However, with social media, pressure to make not just the day, but the whole month perfect has increased. In particular, parents are feeling the weight of finding the perfect presents, cooking a restaurant-quality meal and getting the house in shape, ready for guests.”
“As a result, we’re seeing interest increase from families wanting to forget all of the chores and book a holiday lodge with their loved ones, removing the pressure to have a perfect house and cook for everyone. In many cases, the holiday also becomes the gift to the family, replacing the need for last-minute Christmas shopping.”
Ollis added that changing the environment can provide a genuine mental break: “Going away gives people permission to simplify, with fewer obligations, less hosting and a natural excuse to shrink the guest list. It removes the domestic performance of the perfect table, the perfect tree, the perfect day. And a change of scene genuinely helps the body switch off in a way home never quite allows, because home is where the to-do list lives.”
“People are starting to prioritise how they want to feel over how things should look and frankly, that’s rather healthy. A regulated nervous system gives you presence. The capacity to actually be in the room, laughing at the terrible cracker jokes, rather than mentally three tasks ahead.”
People interested in booking a holiday or a last-minute summer getaway can visit the Parkdean website.