Festive Chores Dominate Christmas Family Time

LONDON, December 12, 2011 -

-toptable  research reveals Brits spend over 2 working days planning and delivering their perfect Christmas celebration-

British families are spending less time with each other and more in the kitchen and supermarket, according to a Christmas survey* by the leading online consumer destination for restaurant bookings in the UK, toptable.com.

Despite Christmas being traditionally earmarked as a time to spend with the family, more hours are being spent planning festive celebrations and doing the chores. Over half (51%) of respondents admitted spending up to five hours planning the Christmas dinner, with a further 42% saying they will commit to three or four hours preparing and cooking the meal for the family, rather than spending time with them. In fact, nearly one in two (46%) also owned up to doing the cleaning for two hours instead of sitting down with their loved ones.

Supermarkets are also popular attractions for families as over a third of respondents (36%) confessed to trawling the shops for approximately four hours to make sure they have planned every mealtime. What’s more, one in five (19%) even tend to miss their family arriving for Christmas altogether, as they are too busy with festive chores.

The number of people catered for over the holidays can also have a big effect on the amount of work required. The study revealed that over a third (35%) of hosts tend to cater for an average of eight different people over the Christmas period, with a further one in three (33%) families arguing about a lack of helpers with the festive preparations!

Head of restaurant relations at toptable, Lucy Taylor says: “We know that Christmas can be an extremely busy time for families and sometimes you forget what the holiday is all about - spending time with them. Families can save hours of stress by taking time out and booking a local restaurant over the festive period.”

To book your Christmas fun for all the family, go to www.toptable.com

About toptable 

More than 12 million diners have been seated via toptable, making it the leading consumer destination for restaurant reservations in the UK.  toptable.com provides a free and easy-to-use service, allowing diners to browse and book at more than 3,000 restaurants across the UK.  More than 200,000 diners are seated at restaurants each month through reservations booked via toptable.com.  toptable is owned and operated by OpenTable, Inc., the world’s leading provider of free, real-time online restaurant reservations for diners and reservation and guest management solutions for restaurants.  OpenTable has more than 20,000 restaurant customers and has seated more than 250 million diners around the world.  The Company is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and the OpenTable service is available throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Germany, Japan, Mexico, and the UK.

Jack Shilling, +0207-908-6457, jshilling at lexisagency.com; Lucy Hawes, +0207-908-6456, lhawes at lexisagency.com; Notes to editors: *Interviews carried out by toptable with a randomly selected, nationally representative sample of adults (number of participants: 342).