We know what you’ll be humming this Christmas!

While almost half of us feel the shops stick their Christmas album on repeat too early, folks in the East of England apparently favour one cheesy tune above all others.
Bedford Christmas lightsBedford Christmas lights
Bedford Christmas lights

Top of the festive pops in these parts is, apparently, Driving Home for Christmas, by Chris Rea.

The track has been revealed as the region’s favourite after a survey was carried out by www.vouchercloud.com

It found when given a list of Christmas classics, each region favoured a different tune:

· East of England – Chris Rea, Driving Home For Christmas (23%)

· North West – Mel and Kim, Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree (22%)

· Scotland – Cliff Richard, Mistletoe And Wine (21%)

· London – Band Aid, Do They Know It’s Christmas (20%)

· South East – Mariah Carey, All I Want For Christmas (20%)

· Northern Ireland – Slade, Merry Xmas Everybody (19%)

· North East – Boney M, Mary’s Boy Child (17%)

· Yorkshire and the Humberside – John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Happy Xmas (War Is Over) (16%)

· South West – David Bowie & Bing Crosby, Little Drummer Boy (11%)

· Wales – Tom Jones & Cerys Matthews, Baby It’s Cold Outside (10%)

· East Midlands – Jackson 5, Santa Clause Is Coming To Town (8%)

· West Midlands – Wham, Last Christmas (6%)

The research also revealed almost half of Britons feel that retailers begin playing Christmas music too early, with two fifths of respondents feeling that Christmas songs should be put on hold until December.

Britons aged 18 and over took part in the poll, with an even amount of respondents were taken from each of the UK regions.

Initially, all respondents were asked ‘How do you feel about retailers playing Christmas music?’ to which the most common response was ‘they begin playing it too early’ (47%), although 35% felt that ‘it’s a nice touch when I’m out shopping’.

All respondents were then asked ‘When do you feel it is an appropriate time to begin listening to Christmas music?’ to which almost half of respondents stated ‘not until December’ (47%), whilst remaining respondents stated ‘November’ (33%) and ‘when it’s officially the twelve day Christmas countdown’ (14%).

According to the poll, when asked how they listened to Christmas songs themselves, the most common responses from respondents were ‘I subscribe to a music app, such as Spotify or iTunes’ (31%), ‘I purchase Christmas CDs’ (26%) and ‘I listen to the radio’ (21%).

Furthermore, when asked ‘When do you typically put up your Christmas tree and decorations?’ 42% of respondents admitted that they did so in ‘November’, with further respondents stating ‘I’m holding out as long as possible’ (26%) and ‘we wait until 12 days before Christmas’ (15%).

Head of Operations at vouchercloud.com Chris Johnson said: “We definitely expected one or two songs to be preferred across more than one region, but the list actually varied so much that none doubled up.

“As a result, it gave us chance to remember some songs that we’d forgotten and get into a debate amongst ourselves over which we felt was the best.” He added: “There’s always going to be a debate in terms of how early is too early; it rolls around each year come November when the music starts being introduced in shops and offices and the decorations start to go up.”