Top 10 most festive UK cities - based on historic newspaper articles
Historic newspaper articles, dating back more than 160 years, have helped to reveal the UK's most festive cities – based on how many times the word “Christmas” was mentioned.
The top 10 cities include Exeter, Bath, Derby, and Lincoln – with mentions of the festive key word weighted against each city's population, to avoid the largest cities all coming out on top.
But it was Durham that took the top spot for most Christmassy city, with an average of one mention of “Christmas” per person, based on more than a century's worth of newspaper clippings.
Cambridge followed closely behind, with 0.95 “Christmas” mentions per head, while York came in third place, with 0.8 mentions per head.
And the top three cities with the highest number of Christmas-related articles is perhaps unsurprising, given the festive events that have taken place in these locations for many years.
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In Durham, Lumiere has become the UK's biggest light festival since launching in 2009. The biennial festival, held in November every other year, hosts a number of light-art installations, illuminating buildings and locations across the city – including the historic Cathedral. An estimated 140,000 people attended the last event in 2021, with community involvement from 685 individuals.
More historically, Durham Cathedral has had a central role in Christmas celebrations for hundreds of years. A specific kind of music, called “verse anthem”, was played during services at Christmas, from as early as the 17th century to the present day, the analysis found.
A Christmas Message from Bishop of Durham: 1933 Sunderland Echo and Shipping Gazette (The British Library Board)The data comes from analysis of more than 70 million historical newspaper pages, dated between 1861 and 2021.
And Jen Baldwin, research specialist at Findmypast, the family history site which pored through the papers, said: “Christmas has always been a time of celebration for families across the country, and it’s fascinating to see how the excitement around the festive period builds in varying cities.
“This Christmas, I’d encourage everyone to discover their own family and community stories hiding in these pages. From pantomime dames to festive mishaps, you might even discover some surprising stories from your own family tree, right there in black and white.”
It also emerged that musical tradition is similarly crucial to Cambridge’s Christmassy reputation, with the annual Carols from King’s College having been broadcast on Christmas Eve since 1954 – becoming a tradition to watch, even for those outside of the city.
Meanwhile, York’s winter celebrations date back all the way to Viking and Roman solstice ceremonies.
The data also found that Christmas really is getting earlier each year. Since 1980, the number of “Christmas” mentions in November have almost trebled, compared to the more than 100 years before.
Similarly, mentions of other Christmas favourites boomed, too – with the phrase “mince pie” 15 times more likely to be mentioned in November, and more than 10 times more likely to be spotted in October in recent decades.
This reflects current food shopping trends, that see shops like Waitrose previewing their Christmas food as early as July.
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Meanwhile, the phrase “Christmas tree” saw a six-fold increase in mentions in November newspapers since 1980.
Jen Baldwin, from Findmypast, added: “Christmas is more than a date on the calendar – it’s a time to get together with loved ones, celebrate family traditions, and promote compassion and goodwill within our communities.
“Discovering how our ancestors marked Christmases past, helps us cherish the diverse ways people around the country have come together to celebrate this occasion.”
THE TOP 10 MOST FESTIVE CITIES – ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF “CHRISTMAS” MENTIONS PER HEAD IN HISTORIC NEWPAPER ARTICLES:
- Durham – 1.0
- Cambridge – 0.95
- York – 0.8
- Ely – 0.7
- Oxford – 0.69
- Lincoln – 0.69
- Salisbury – 0.67
- Derby – 0.58
- Bath – 0.54
- Exeter – 0.54
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