Cold turkey this Christmas? Yellow Pages research reveals Heating Failure the most likely festive crisis - 23 December 2003
Christmas: a time for relaxing with your loved ones, a time for giving and sharing, a time for merriment, mistletoe and wine. Or so we'd like to think. In fact, for many Christmas is the time when anything that can go wrong will go wrong - as a new survey* into festive domestic disasters reveals.To find out more about the UK’s most common Christmas calamities Yellow Pages asked 1,000 people to identify past holiday mishaps. From blown-up boilers to still-frozen turkeys, the directory then estimated the total number of Britons likely to have suffered domestic disasters in Christmases past, with the calculations revealing that millions of British households have had a less than merry time on Christmas Days gone by, thanks to a catalogue of seasonal slip-ups.
Those results in full:
Top Christmas Crises | ||
 | | |
| Crisis | Estimate number affected (in millions) | % of GB population |
| 1. Heating Fails | 5.2 | 11 |
| 2. Electricity Fails/power Cuts | 4.7 | 10 |
| 3. Vehicle Breakdown | 4.3 | 9 |
| 4. Being Locked Out | 2.8 | 6 |
| 5. Oven Failure | 2.8 | 6 |
| 6. Burst Pipes | 2.4 | 5 |
| 7. Television Broken | 2.4 | 5 |
| 8. Forgot to buy Alcohol | 1.9 | 4 |
| 9. Phone Broken | 1.9 | 4 |
Few recent Christmases have been truly white, but they’re usually freezing cold, so it’s no surprise that heating failure tops the list of Yuletide woes - having affected approximately 5.2 million British adults. Power cuts come a close second, with around 4.7 million people having experienced a candle-lit Christmas at some point.
At a time when family visits mean more to many than any amount of gifts, 4.3 million folks may have left relatives disappointed thanks to cars refusing to start on Christmas Day, and an estimated 2.8 million of us have, at some stage, been locked out of our homes over the festive season. Young people are most likely to have been left out in the cold, with almost one in five 16 to 24 year-olds (19 per cent) forgetting their keys over Christmas.
Among young adults (16 to 34), failure to remember to buy a festive bottle has left almost one in ten high and dry, but perhaps unluckiest of all are the 2.8 million adults suffering cold turkey trauma due to oven problems in Christmases past. Perhaps they could order Turkey Curry (from the local takeaway) - unless they’re also among the 1.9 million who’ve been incommunicado courtesy of a broken phone over Christmas.
Finally, the Queen herself might be distressed to know that more than 2 million people may well have missed her speech during Christmases past, thanks to a broken TV.
If you do need any kind of work done during the festive period, here are a few tips from Yellow Pages on choosing a supplier:
- Ask whether there is a call out charge
- Ask whether the charge is per hour or per job
- Don’t be scared to ask questions
- Avoid paying cash upfront and ask for a fully itemised receipt
Richard Duggleby, head of external relations at Yell, publisher of Yellow Pages directories, said: "Like most people I love Christmas, but these figures confirm just how often domestic dramas can occur when they're least wanted. So here's to a peaceful and stress-free time, together with season’s greetings from all at Yell."
* Research: BMRB International, sample: 998 GB adults aged 16+, November 2003
Notes for editors
Figures are calculated using total survey sample size (998 GB adults aged 16+) as equivalent to total GB adult population (47,300,000).
BMRB International asked 998 people which of the nine “Christmas crises” had ever happened to them over a Christmas period.
For further information please contact The RED Consultancy:
- Simon Bear, tel: 020 7465 7717, email: simon.bear@redconsultancy.com
- Jo Chappel, tel: 020 7465 6424, email: jo.chappell@redconsultancy.com
- Sarita Bingeman, tel: 020 7465 7708, email: sarita.bingeman@redconsultancy.com
Yell PR department (0118 950 6345/6444)
- Andrea Morrison, tel: 0118 950 6345, email: andrea.morrison@yellgroup.com
- Emma Smailes, tel: 0118 950 6444, email: emma.smailes@yellgroup.com
Yellow Pages
Yellow Pages are published by Yell, a leading international directories business operating in the classified advertising market through printed, online and telephone–based media. Yell’s products in the UK also include the Business Pages directory, Yell.com, Yellow Pages 118 24 7 and in the US, Yellow Book and Yellowbook.com. Yellow Pages is a trade mark of Yell Limited.
