Survey Reveals Nearly A Quarter of Us Redecorate For The Festive Season

New research(1) from home improvement retailer Wickes has found that we’re a nation of festive fanatics, with almost a quarter of us (23%) redecorating our homes in anticipation of Christmas guests.

To impress our friends and family, a whopping three in five Brits (60%) choose to redecorate the living area, and 30% opt for the dining area, but it’s the downstairs toilet that’s most likely to get some TLC. While only 13% proactively redecorate the downstairs toilet, this is the room that receives the most patching up, with fixing the toilet seat (46%), toilet flush handle (37%), lock on the door (30%) and light bulb (29%) ranking as the top quick fixes to carry out. 

With the pressure to host reaching an all-time high, the research also revealed that 2 in 5 have had to do a ‘quick fix’ during Christmas festivities, including everything from wedging something under a wonky table leg (29%), and using garden furniture inside (28%), to panic fixing the Christmas tree stand (21%). A caring 11% of us even admit to bubble wrapping sharp corners as a way of baby proofing ahead of little ones coming over. 

When it comes to the big day itself, broken appliances (29%), scuffed walls (29%) and breaking chairs (28%) are the top three disasters experienced whilst hosting Christmas feast. Almost 1 in 10 (9%) have even experienced windows being smashed, while 10% say that their dog is one of the top culprits for causing damage at Christmas! 

General clumsiness (38%) and over-excited children (26%) are the top two reasons that Christmas disasters happen, although almost a quarter (22%) of those surveyed admit to it being due to too much to drink! This all leaves Brits forking out an average of £116 to just to get the house back in order. 

Linda Byas, 55, business owner from Burnley revealed: “I always try to make sure the house is looking its best before guests arrive for the Christmas period, but there is no way of escaping those last minute quick-fixes. Having a lot of visitors in the house over the festive season can cause a fair amount of damage, which I always seem to forget in the lead up to the festivities.” 

Despite our efforts to impress, our guests are still prone to grumble, revealing that the UK’s biggest irritation when visiting friends and family at Christmas is the toilet not flushing (41%), followed by not having anywhere to sit (34%) and no lock on the toilet door (32%). 

British top ten pet peeves when visiting friends and family at Christmas:

1. Toilet not flushing (41%)

2. Nowhere to sit (34%)

3. No lock on the toilet door (32%)

4. Too cold (30%)

5. Broken toilet seat (28%)

6. No light bulb in the bathroom (20%)

7. No table to eat at (18%)

8. Noisy household appliances (9%)

9. No visible house number/name (9%)

10. No visible doorbell (6%) 

Lidia Nowak, Category Director for Decorative at Wickes, comments: “We can see from our research that Christmas is a peak time for home improvements, whether that’s a small refresh or redecorating an entire room. As always, we are dedicated to supporting our customers with their last-minute Christmas prep and our stores will be open as normal throughout the festive season.”

Source : Wickes

1) This survey was conducted among 1,002 UK consumers.

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