Many of us who are married or in relationships are used to the annual Christmas politics over whose “side” of the family to spent the big day with.
But one in five of us actively book holidays over the festive period to escape an annual festive dinner with our in-laws.
That’s according to a study of 2,000 adults, commissioned by Rentalcar.com and conducted by OnePoll.
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Two fifths of respondents said they were spending Christmas day away from home, with 17% of this number saying they were going abroad.
And we’re not all trying to escape our relatives, with more than a third of us saying we travel to visit distant family at this time of year, while a smaller proportion, a fifth, say we go abroad to visit friends.
A third of respondents also said they booked holidays over the Christmas period in order to get away from “normality”. Some 29% said they’re fed up of British Christmas weather – with rain but no snow – and a fifth were tired of the special day “always [being] the same”.
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Even if we haven’t aren’t spending Christmas abroad this year, it seems many of us would like to – with 68% saying they would like to be abroad for a future Christmas.
Nigel Wolstenholme, head of consumer brand at Rentalcars.com, said of the findings: “Christmas is the perfect time of year to plan a trip away, and it doesn’t just have to be about escaping what’s happening at home.
“Holidays are about making memories, and when better than by doing something different at Christmas?
"Everyone is in a good mood and work tends to be quiet, so you don’t have to worry about coming back to floods of emails.
“Although discovering somewhere new in the UK remains popular, our research has found many are exploring international trips for Christmas, from a short hop to France and Spain, to longer-haul destinations like Thailand and the USA.”
