What does Christmas Dinner look like in the UK?
Every household has its own unwritten rules about Christmas. Who carves the turkey. Which film goes on after lunch. Whether you open one present on Christmas Eve or save everything for the big day.
This year, we wanted to zoom in on one of the biggest Christmas traditions at home: Christmas dinner. So in our latest Vox Pops Pool, we asked people about their plans for the big meal:
- What time do most people actually sit down to eat?
- Is it acceptable to skip the roast and order a takeaway instead?
What time do people eat?
When it comes to timing, responses ranged from 1pm through to early evening, with most people describing it as a kind of “late lunch”.
Some families sit down around 3 or 4pm, after a slow morning of presents and getting everything in the oven. Others prefer something earlier. One younger respondent said they eat at 1pm after opening gifts, adding that 4pm would feel “too late”.
It’s a reminder that even around a shared tradition like Christmas dinner, every home does it differently.
Is a takeaway acceptable?
In our mini poll, the room was split: 4 people said “for sure, why not”, and 6 said “not acceptable”.
On one side were the traditionalists, for whom Christmas dinner is sacred. “It has to be made from scratch – that’s the whole spirit,” said one respondent, while another insisted, “I will cook myself if I have to.”
On the other side were the pragmatists. One person told us, “Last year we had Chinese,” while another said, “we were out for an Indian two Christmases ago… if you don’t want to cook – fair enough.” For them, the day is about being together, not about what’s cooked for the table.
Turning research into social-ready content
Alongside our main edit from the Vox Pops Pool, we had some fun with the footage and created a reel to engage viewers on social media. Using on-screen graphics and a live tally, we counted votes as people answered the question – turning a simple question into a piece of content that felt playful and more engaging. It’s a great example of how vox pops can work in multiple ways at once – as research, and as social media or marketing content.
Getting closer to your customers
What sits underneath all of this is simple: talking to real people.
Hearing how they actually spend the day, where they bend the “rules”, and what really matters to them gives you a feel for their lives. Recently, we’ve helped teams at Unilever and Diageo get closer to their customers through International Video Diaries – another video format that taps into the real day-to-day lives of people.
If you’d like to explore how video can bring you closer to your customers, we’re currently running free Customer Closeness Workshops. In these sessions, we share practical ways brands can use vox pops and other video formats to understand people better and create content that resonates.
You can find out more and sign up here: Vox Pops International: Free Workshop
Written By
Frankie Dove
Client Engagement & Marketing Lead
