Families are planning a bigger Christmas than ever before after ‘missing out’ last year due to Covid, survey reveals – despite fears of supermarket shortages
- Families are planning to do more to celebrate Christmas this year, survey shows
- People want to make the event more special after missing out last year
- Findings are published in the second edition of the M&S Family Matters Index
Families will be doing more to celebrate Christmas this year than they did before the pandemic, a survey reveals.
Households across the UK will be pulling out all the stops to make sure this festive season is more special than ever, after missing out on much of the fun last year due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The findings are published in the second edition of the M&S Family Matters Index, out this week, which explores the priorities, challenges, ambitions and plans of families.
Families will be doing more to celebrate Christmas this year than they did before the pandemic, a survey reveals. Stock image
The study of more than 5,000 British adults was conducted after lockdown and social distancing laws came to an end.
The publication coincides with rising concerns the festive season might be ruined by food shortages.
Some 39 per cent of respondents say they will do more to celebrate Christmas than they did before the pandemic hit, with more effort also planned for Easter, Diwali and Hannukah.
One in three say they will do more in future to celebrate family birthdays, and more than one in five say this of New Year’s Eve and relationship anniversaries.
The importance of Christmas is also reflected in the fact that it ranks second in the list of things people have most been looking forward to doing together as a family, which haven’t been possible due to Covid.
Top of the list is simply going to a bar or restaurant with family.
More than half of respondents say Christmas will be ‘extra special’ this year because of the lack of festivities last year.
However this year families face a new threat: the lack of supplies reaching the UK due to labour shortages, Britain’s creaking supply chain and fears over rising inflation.
Boris Johnson today appointed former Tesco boss Sir Dave Lewis as his new supply chain crisis tsar with a remit to clear ‘current blockages’ and ‘pre-empt potential future ones’ as the Prime Minister battles to save Christmas.
Sir Dave, 56, is nicknamed ‘Drastic Dave’ due to the lengths he will go to to turn around businesses, including job cuts and slashing prices, and ‘Diamond Dave’ because of his success at Britain’s biggest supermarket and at Unilever before that.
Mr Johnson has a lot riding on the festive period, having promised last week that ‘Christmas will be considerably better than last Christmas’.
But retailers have warned of empty shelves and delays to gifts due to gaps in the global supply chain and a lack of HGV drivers. One in ten businesses have also put up prices in the past month due to rising inflation with economists saying it is yet to peak.