LONDON — The average person estimates they spend more than 41 hours preparing for Christmas.
The poll of 2,000 adults in the United Kingdom who celebrate the holiday found the average person spends three-and-a-half hours just shopping for food! Prepping for Christmas also takes up six hours and 42 minutes as adults hunt in-store and online for the perfect presents for family and friends.
Once everything is purchased, it takes another two hours and 41 minutes to wrap all those gifts.
When it comes to decorating, people set aside over two-and-a-half hours to get the home looking its festive best, with the Christmas tree alone taking nearly 40 minutes to prepare. For those buying a new tree, they’ll spend around 21 minutes mulling over their options for the perfect centerpiece for the living room.
The research was commissioned by Samsung, which has partnered with author Fearne Cotton to reveal her secrets on how she plans for Christmas and what she enjoys most.
“Christmas tends to really kickstart for me once I’ve had my first mulled wine, that’s when I really feel it’s happening, it’s on… it’s the taste of Christmas,” Cotton says in a statement.
“My favorite Christmas thing is to watch a Christmas film with the kids, that’s a blissful moment. We watched a Boy Called Christmas last year and just loved every second of getting really cozy under a blanket.”
“My husband is a really good cook, so he tends to do all of the meat, the turkey and all that jazz and then we share the veg and I do the pudding,” Cotton adds about prepping for Christmas dinner.
People spend hours just cleaning up before company arrives
The study also found 54 percent think the perfect tree should be tastefully decorated. Meanwhile, 35 percent want a Christmas tree which isn’t dying by the time Dec. 25th rolls around, and 30 percent want to ensure theirs is wide and bushy.
When it comes to getting in the festive mood, decorating the tree is the top task to feel Christmassy, followed by wrapping and shopping for gifts. More than four in 10 also start to feel festive when they are making plans to catch up with friends and family throughout December.
When it comes to welcoming people over during the festive season, however, the average adult will spend four hours and 12 minutes cleaning up around the house. On Christmas Eve and Boxing Day in the U.K., more than three hours is spent in the kitchen cleaning up.
Although 48 percent recognize their family makes more mess over the festive season, with 41 percent admitting they would rather be a guest than a host at Christmas.
4 in 10 depend on their phone during Christmas
The research, conducted via OnePoll, also found 41 percent rely heavily on their smartphones to get ready for festive celebrations. Cotton, a brand ambassador for Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip4, also spoke about using technology at Christmas.
“The most obvious, brilliant thing we can use tech for is connections with other humans whether its chatting to someone on the other side of the planet or texting one of your best mates,” the author says.
“I think it’s integral that if you feel lonely at Christmas that you do reach out and talk to other people that you know are there for you and want to have a friendly chat and make you laugh or just sit there and listen to you.”
The poll finds 28 percent use their device to do their shopping on-the-go, while 28 percent make a multitude of to-do lists on their phones to keep on top of their tasks. Another 16 percent rely on their smartphone to make the ultimate Christmas playlist.
“I love Christmas songs. I don’t even get bored of them; I listen to the same ones every year,” Cotton adds. “I think Mariah Carey, all though totally obvious and a cliché, is still the best, but I’m no stranger to a Rat Pack Christmas album – whole album listening to Frank crooning away with Dean, yes please.”
72Point writer Oliver Lewis contributed to this report.