Hosts should charge £47 per head to cover Christmas Day Costs

Christmas comes at a price

According to new research, Christmas hosts need to charge £47 per head for a family of six, to cover Christmas Day.

Hosts would need quite a lot of money for Christmas festivities (photo: shutterstock)Hosts would need quite a lot of money for Christmas festivities (photo: shutterstock)
Hosts would need quite a lot of money for Christmas festivities (photo: shutterstock)

The expense of typical Christmas tasks, like food shopping and cooking, were taken into account.Research found hosts would be paid £884.89 for their work during the festive period, if it were a paid role.

The study, which surveyed 1,500 members of the public, revealed hosts dedicate 67 hours preparing for and hosting the festive event. This equates to an average hourly rate of £13. This is £4.09 more than the current minimum wage for British adults.

Prepping and cooking Christmas dinner were among the tasks commonly identified in the survey. This was carried out by discounts platform, WeThrift, to highlight how much work goes into hosting the festivities.

Key Findings

  • Spend five hours cooking Christmas dinner £70.95
  • Clean for six hours £57.06
  • Spend four hours bartending £40.68
  • Wait on their guests including washing up for four hours £39.20
  • Wrap gifts for three hours £29.43
  • Shop for gifts for 10 hours £102
  • Grocery shop for eight hours £76

A full breakdown of what hosting Christmas entails can be found here: https://www.wethrift.com/articles/the-job-of-hosting-christmas-a-study/

Members of the public who celebrate the festivities were asked to select typical jobs they do during the Christmas holiday. This study focused on Christmas Eve to Boxing Day. They were also asked to provide the average number of hours they spend doing each Christmas job.

Looking solely at Christmas Day activities, the study found people hosting their families would be paid £283.89. That is, if they earned money for cooking (£70.95), cleaning (£57.06), bartending (£40.68), waiting/washing up (£39.20), and grocery shopping (£76).

To cover this wage in a family of six, hosts would need to charge each family member/friend £47.31 for attending.

Shopping for Christmas takes time

Shopping for gifts was the most time-consuming task. Brits spend 10 hours on average buying presents for Christmas. Caring for elderly relatives was also identified as a task, with most hosts spending six hours over the holiday tending to grandparents, parents or similar family members.

The festive shop can be extremely time-consuming (photo: shutterstock)The festive shop can be extremely time-consuming (photo: shutterstock)
The festive shop can be extremely time-consuming (photo: shutterstock)

WeThrift simply helps shoppers save money when they shop online by providing the latest discount and coupon codes across more than 30 categories including fashion, food and drink and beauty. The platform was launched in 2017 by entrepreneur Nick Drewe. Now the site receives 2 million monthly visitors globally.

Appreciate the hosts

Nick Drewe, founder of WeThrift said: “Christmas is such a popular holiday around the world, and some families really go all out when they celebrate it. However, one thing that is rarely considered is how much work the host has to put in, because inevitably it falls on one or two people to do the heavy lifting!

“We wanted to investigate this further, and highlight how many hard hours of work go into the festive holiday. This means we can really appreciate the effort our hosts have put in, maybe even let them sit down for a few hours and buy them an extra special thank you gift! If you’re the host then give yourself a big pat on the back, Christmas is certainly no small feat!”