Over half of Brits encourage their children to write a letter to Father Christmas

With only a week to go until the big day, households across the UK will be hanging up their stockings hoping for a visit from Father Christmas. New research from,InLinkUK, the company behind the new community communications product, InLinks, reveals just how obsessed us Brits are with Santa.

In the survey of 1,000 UK parents, 7 in 10 (70%) of British families leave out drinks and a carrot for Father Christmas and his reindeer on Christmas Eve. It would appear that our fondness of him does not stop there, with 60% saying they binge watch festive movies featuring Father Christmas during the holidays.

When asked what part of Christmas they find the most trying and stressful, almost half (47%) of parents said the amount of money they have to spend. This was followed by 14% of parents who said getting all the children’s presents for the big day was the most stressful part of the festive period.

Despite the stresses and strains of Christmas, parents work hard to maintain family traditions, which remains a big part of the festive season for British children.

Communicating with Father Christmas, for example, is very much a key part of the festive period, with 59% of parents saying their kids write a wish list to Father Christmas and 60% stating that they take their little ones to a grotto to meet him in person.

When asked what forms of contact with Santa would bring the biggest smile to their children’s faces, parents said meeting him at a grotto (48%), getting a written reply from Father Christmas (45%) and a trip to Lapland to meet the main man  in person (43%) respectively.

InLinkUK’s Call Santa feature gives families exclusive access to the InLink hotline to Father Christmas’ personal voicemail, and leave him a message.