Over a third of UK Brits would rather not buy gifts than face present panic

In a survey commissioned by Red Letter Days to mark National Stress Awareness Day (7th November), it was revealed that deciding which gifts to buy is by far the most stressful part of Christmas with half of Brits citing it as the most worrying aspect of the holiday and over a third (34%) are so stressed they would rather just not buy presents!

A fifth of the population are now (20%) turning to cyber space to help alleviate this stress. It seems shopping in the virtual world really is a recommended way to combat a Christmas crisis.

Zachary Soreff, Director of Marketing and Sales for Red Letter Days agrees, "These findings show that Christmas present buying stress affects everyone quite dramatically and can really take the cheer out of the celebration. www.redletterdays.co.uk can take the stress out of the festive season with our unforgettable, flexible gift experiences which means gift buying can be a pleasure rather than a chore."

Gift grief continued to reign supreme in the stress stakes with wrapping gifts sending one in five (19%) of the population into a festive fervour. With 19% of the population finding pretending to like unwanted gifts the most stressful part of the holiday – it seems getting that gift right looks to be a real pressure point this Christmas.

"We have hundreds of experiences ands gifts to choose from," adds Zachary, "and whatever you give someone, from a Junior Ferrari Driving Day (for 12 years and over), to our new Die Hard day experience or a Chocolate Wrap treat, they can exchange it for another experience for free if they wish. We also have a fantastic range of gift cards so you can also leave the exciting choice to them. No unwanted gifts this year!"

National Stress Awareness Day aims to present a more manageable approach to stress management. To demonstrate the stresses that Christmas can cause all the family, www.redletterdays.co.uk commissioned the survey with results which proved that Christmas cheer isn’t what is it used to be, or should be.

Present panic is so acute that it eclipsed money worries in the panic stakes with only 34% of those questioned citing financial troubles as their foremost festive fear factor.

Key Findings:

• 50% of Brits think that deciding which gifts to buy is the most stressful part of Christmas
• 34% would rather not buy presents at all to reduce Christmas stress
• 20% think buying online makes it less stressful

Remember an experience is not just for Christmas, it's for life.

- Ends -

Press Contact for further information and interviews: Shine Communications

Roxy Kalha / Annabel Lockyer

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7100 7100

email: roxy.kalha@shinecom.com / annabel.lockyer@shinecom.com

Notes to editors:

What causes Christmas stress?

Across the board, deciding which gifts to buy is the most stressful part of Christmas with 50 per cent of Brits citing it as the most worrying aspect of the holiday.

For once, there is no North-South divide and no real variations between age groups or the regions when it comes to worrying about finding the perfect gift.

It even causes more stress than money issues, though the gap between the two is lower in the 18-24 age group (58% and 53%) than it between the over-55s (51% and 20%).

However, what is clear is that it is mum who does most of the agonising over presents with the stress factor rising to 55% for mums against 47% for dads and even 54% for grandmothers against 51% for grandfathers!

Mums also spend longer stressing about which gift to buy. One in five (21%) can spend more than a week agonising over it, though the majority (24%) admit to only one to five hours.

One in four dads (25%) also spend one to five hours worrying about a gift, though the majority (30%) reckon that it is done and dusted in less than one hour.

Although Christmas TV is supposed to entertain, it does produce another stress factor for 20% of those surveyed, though this time it is roles reversed with 29% of dads and only 16% of mums citing bad TV as a stress.

Wrapping the gifts gained a similar response, but the older women get, the more stressful it gets, as 31% of grandmothers found it stressful compared to an average of 19% overall and just 18% for grandfathers.

Family arguments also played their part in causing stress at Christmas time with one in four of the 18-24 age group (25%) citing it, a percentage which fell through the older groups to just one in 12 (8%) of the over-55s.

Putting up the decorations affected the 45-54 age group most (19% compared to the average of 16%) and having to pretend you like unwanted gifts least (13% against an average of 19%).

How widespread is Christmas stress?

A staggering 80 per cent of people admit to being affected by it, although 58 per cent love Christmas enough to put up with it.

Nevertheless, for some people there is a clear yearning to escape. One in three of over 55s (34%) think going abroad a good way to dodge the stresses of the Festive season, while almost half of those in the 18 to 24 age group (48%) thought turning to drink was a good way to do it, the same as felt having sex would do the trick.

Overall, 29% of people agreed that having sex was the answer, though it was hardly an even split with 41% of men and just 18% of women advocating it. The gap was much narrower for taking some exercise with 23% of men and 20% of women in favour of that solution.

And, unsurprisingly, while 19% of all women see an outing to a spa as the perfect antidote to Christmas stress, only 6% of men felt the same way.

And to avoid Christmas stress altogether?

One-fifth of us would rather get out of the country than face the stress of Christmas, but for Londoners, Christmas is such a stressful time that the percentage rises to one in four (24%) who want to clear off abroad.

The survey also showed that the stress of Christmas is also more likely to cause the breakdown of relationships in London than anywhere else, with four per cent of Londoners claiming they would leave their partner to avoid it, compared to just one per cent in any other part of England and Wales.

Only in Scotland did couples say they would stick together no matter what, as did all the over-45s taking part in the survey.

And it seems the spirit of Scrooge lives on as there are 3% of Brits who would rather go to work than party at the Festive season. One in 20 men (5%) and, despite getting the brunt of the stress, one in 100 women (1%) admitted that they would rather spend Christmas Day in work than do what they normally do.

The best alternative seems to be going away on holiday somewhere – anywhere – with 38% of men and 35% of women suggesting it, while a trip to a spa again found favour, this time with in 11 women (9%) and one in 25 men (4%).

Lame excuses for avoiding Christmas stress are mainly the domain of the 35-44 age group with 11% claiming they would fake an illness, three times as many as older groups, to get out of it, while 7% would say the transport had failed, double that of the older age groups.

Younger groups take more extreme measures with 2% of the 18-24 age group saying they would fake bereavement, claim bankruptcy or even change religion to get out of Christmas stress.

And if you can’t avoid it?

Well most Brits don’t want to avoid it, but you can cut down the stress by not worrying so much about those gifts.

Two in five dads (39%) and three in 10 grandfathers (31%) would probably want some kind of gadget after naming that category as the one in which they received their most memorable gift.

One in six mums (17%) put a homemade gift as their most memorable present as did one in six grandmothers (16%).

And across the board, a special day experience found favour with all sexes and age groups.

Editor’s Notes:

About Red Letter Days

Created in 1989, Red Letter Days pioneered the concept of giving experiences as unforgettable gifts. Now owned by Dragons Den entrepreneurs, Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis, Red Letter Days offers an unrivalled choice of hundreds of experiences across the UK and abroad.

Brand new to 2007, Red Letter Days has also launched a range of online gift cards, which offer hundreds of unforgettable options to choose from, valued from £50 to £1,000. A Red Letter Days gift card offers the ultimate in flexibility and customers can select from an extensive range of gifts.

The company has also launched a range of retail gift cards in Sainsbury’s stores across the UK. The Red Letter Days range of Sainsbury’s gift cards offers the consumer the choice of a wide range of unforgettable experiences with 4 gift cards available at two price levels with associated experiences. £49 offers the customer a choice of over 50 experiences and gifts across the UK, including Afternoon Tea and Tour of Kensington Palace, Paintballing, an evening of Yacht sailing and a Junior Cowboy Adventure. £99 offers the breathtaking Light Aircraft Flight, the ultimate adrenalin rush - Silverstone/Ferrari Sensation and the Thames Lunch Cruise & BA London Eye experience – a great day for couples. With more significant retail launches planned for 2007 and 2008, Red Letter Days gift cards will be available almost everywhere in the country.

Renowned for first class customer service and the smoothest hassle-free customer journey in the experiences market, Red Letter Days also gives the customer the opportunity to choose their experience online and book immediately with their new 'Click & Go' service.

Experiences can be purchased online at www.redletterdays.co.uk

Red Letter Days is an official partner to the national tourism agency - Visit Britain.