The 'least Christmassy town in the UK' has been named
The UK’s least Christmassy town has been revealed - an ideal little day trip for any Grinches who would rather swerve the Christmas markets.
Look, like it or not Christmas is just around the corner, we all knew it the moment the new John Lewis Christmas advert dropped.
Of course, it’s not just John Lewis that have launched their festive ads - Asda are showing off their new quality control employee Michael Bublé, Sainsbury's have Rick Astley on board, and Aldi have brought back their anthropomorphic carrot Kevin.
Advert
Not only that, but I’m A Celeb is almost upon us and, honestly, is there anything that screams ‘it’s nearly Christmas’ like watching a former soap star choke down a kangaroo penis? Not in my book.
But while some of us are already hitting Buddy the Elf levels of excitement thinking about the run up to the 25 December, it’s fair to say that there’s a whole other group who would put Scrooge to shame when it comes to festive cheer.
And a new study from Spa Seekers has revealed where the Grinchiest towns and cities in the UK are.
The research was compiled by looking at Google searches for Christmas-related things - such as Christmas recipes, present ideas and how to decorate your home - which was then cross-referenced against how many people live in that area to make a score out of 100.
And it turns out the town least interested in festive cheer this year is Luton. Good for them.
The second least Christmassy town was Bradford, followed by Southampton in third place.
In the fourth spot was Hull, while Derby also made it into the top five.
On the other side of the scale, Liverpool was found to be the most Christmassy location, followed by Edinburgh in second place and Manchester in third.
And rounding out the top five more Christmassy locations was Bristol and Newcastle upon Tyne.
This week, Iceland announced it wouldn’t be launching a Christmas advert this year, with executive chairman Richard Walker explaining: "As a business we were faced with a decision.
"Do we spend millions creating and sharing a TV advert or do we invest the money supporting our customers during the cost-of-living crisis?
"This was a no brainer for us. I am grateful that as a family-run company, we can make the decisions we believe are right for our business and our customers."
And while you may have thought that Walker - and Iceland - would be criticised for not getting into the festive spirit, it turns out that most people back the decision. So maybe being a bit of a Grinch isn’t so bad after all.
Claire Reid