Why Do Brits Avoid Eating Out On Christmas Day?
If you're worried that your restaurant doesn't have back-to-back bookings for Christmas Day this year, you might not be the only one. But why could your potential customers be choosing to stay at home and cook their own Christmas dinner? We carried out a survey to find out how Brits are choosing to have their festive feasts.
The Costs That Cancelled Christmas
We surveyed 1,000 UK residents and discovered that 90% of Brits will be staying at home for the day, with a third of those people (35) stating they're doing so because they think it's too expensive to eat out.
What's the reality?
We compared the cost of a home-cooked meal versus a restaurant bill and our research found that the costs per family are roughly the same.
When the prices of ingredients for a traditional Christmas dinner for two adults and three children were tallied, the cost totalled £135 - or £27 per person. This included a starter of soup and prawn cocktail, a dessert selection, cheese and a bottle of prosecco.
When analysing the price of a three-course meal with a bottle of prosecco in three gastro pubs across the UK (excluding London), the average price for a family of five came to £164 - or £32.80 per person. Dining out was also revealed to come with the added benefit of choice; with diners able to pick from an average of five starters, five main courses and three desserts.
For only an extra £30, our analysis showed that families of five could avoid worrying about having to spend their Christmas Day frantically preparing, cooking, or doing the dreaded washing up. After all, once you've spent hours in the kitchen cooking, is there anything worse than having to clear it all up as well?
Forking Out More For Dietary Requirements?
Our survey found that families with different dietary requirements could actually save money by dining out, as there would be no need to splash out on different starters, mains and desserts for those who are vegan (up to an extra £40) or gluten free (up to an extra £30).
Popular reasons to dine out on Christmas Day
If you find your restaurant fully booked this Christmas Day, it may be because your customers believe it’s less hassle to dine out (22%) and love the fact that family members with different dietary requirements can choose different meals (22%). Because nobody enjoys a bust-up at Christmas, people also love the fact that dining out allows them to relax, knowing there will be fewer arguments (16%).
Women who preferred dining out said the main reason was that they could avoid being stuck with all the cooking (33%), whereas men like to dine out to avoid arguments (22%).
Almost half the people who decide to stay in on Christmas Day admitted to arguing with their family about who's washing up the plates (14.5%), who's preparing what for the meal (15%) and what to watch on TV (13%).
For a stress-free Christmas Day, it looks like dining out is a winner!
