What does your Ultimate Christmas look like?
You may have noticed that over the past few weeks we’ve been taking over Hunter and Bligh with all things festive. We love the silly season – and after one of the strangest years on record, we’ll be honest, we’ve never been more excited for Christmas. It’s a time when we can find comfort in some of our usual traditions which can offer a little bit of normality, whether big or small – even if not everything’s the same as usual.
That being said, we know not everyone celebrates Christmas the same way. In fact, it turns out that there’s a range of different traditions that all our Hunter and Bligh members uphold.
So, for the past two weeks, we’ve made it our mission to find out what these are. We’ve been filling our social media, emails and website with polls, quizzes and surveys to find out what it is that makes your Christmas so special. We’ve been on the hunt for your favourite festive food, the song which will always get you singing along and who’s getting the invite round to your house this year…
You’ve come out in your thousands to answer all our questions, and now, we’re thrilled to let you know what the results are. Keep scrolling to find out what we learnt.
84% of Hunter and Bligh members prefer giving than receiving gifts. Image by Kira aud fer Heide via Unsplash.
1. Hunter and Bligh members are a giving lot
At Hunter and Bligh, we’re pretty generous souls. We prefer picking our presents for others, and enjoying their reaction when they open them rather than receiving gifts ourselves. In fact, a whopping 84% of us prefer to see that look of surprise on our loved one’s face.
No one misses out either – it’s not just our friends and family who get gifts, but we make sure to leave something for Santa Claus – 64% of us leave out milk and cookies – and another third make sure to leave carrots and water for his reindeer too. How sweet!
2. The food is one of our favourite parts of Christmas Day
Unsurprisingly we already knew Hunter and Bligh was filled with foodies, but boy, do we love it at Christmas. Eating is hands down our favourite activity on Christmas Day, with 44% of us choosing it above all other activities, while another 17% love the food-coma-induced nap that comes with it.
44% of members’ favourite activity on Christmas day is eating. Image by Karoline Grabowska via Pexels.
So what can you expect to find on a Hunter and Bligh members’ Christmas table? Our stand out favourite food is the Christmas ham, loved by more than 2 in every 3 members. Meanwhile, pavlova was crowned the Christmas food winner on our Instagram stories. Prawns, turkey, Christmas pudding and a good old-fashioned Aussie BBQ all deserved special mentions too.
3. We’re Christmas romantics
Turns out, we’re soppy folks over at Hunter and Bligh.
Our favourite Christmas movie is Love Actually – beating the family favourite Home Alone by 2 to 1. We’re not sure exactly why it’s come out top. Perhaps it’s that scene with Kiera Knightley’s faked carol singers, Hugh Grant’s terrible dancing in Number 10 – or maybe our favourite nativity character of all time, first Lobster.
4. We like to keep it traditional
In general, we’re not very religious at Hunter and Bligh, although 43% of us do celebrate some religious meaning over the holiday. However, we still love to keep up with some of those traditions anyway. We usually top our trees with a traditional star. Plus, when we write cards, we prefer to greet each other with “Merry Christmas” rather than the more neutral “Happy Holidays” or “Seasons Greetings”.
5. It’s all about family
50% of us spend Christmas day with our immediate family. Image by Christian Bowen via Unsplash.
When it comes to the big day, we’re all about family. We’re most likely to be spending the day with family members with half of us spending the day just with our immediate family, and another 43% taking the opportunity to catch up with the extended relatives.
We’re not just sharing presents and fun times with them too – our favourite place to eat our Christmas feast is at home, with 49% of us dining in our own houses, and 48% heading out to our family’s. Just 3% of us choose to eat out on Christmas Day.
So what does the Ultimate Christmas Day look like?
The excitement for Hunter and Bligh’s Ultimate Christmas begins on Christmas Eve, our favourite days of the holiday outside of Christmas Day itself. We’ll be preparing for the day by wrapping our presents for our loved ones – we much prefer giving our presents than receiving them. We’ll also be getting ready for the arrival of Santa Claus, leaving him out milk, cookies – and of course, some carrots for his reindeer.
An ocean swim is one of the most popular Christmas day activities. Image by Vida Nordli Mathisen via Unsplash.
It’s going to be a busy day – if we can, we’ll be heading to the beach for an ocean swim, and then coming back home to watch some Christmas movies – preferably Love Actually. However, our absolute favourite activity is eating (and napping it off after!). We’ll usually eat our main meal at home, or at another family member’s house, and we’ll be most looking forward to a filling meal of prawns and bubbles to start, turkey, ham and, of course, a pavlova to finish!
What do you think? Does this sound like the Ultimate Christmas to you?
Interested in this but didn’t get to have your say? Sign up to Hunter and Bligh right here, and you’ll get surveys and polls like this delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, as an extra treat, we’ll give you an entry into our Summer Playcation prize draw – Merry Christmas!
When it comes to opening presents, we let the suspense kick in and we wait until Christmas morning. We’ll be getting dressed into something casual as we’ll just be spending the day with our immediate family – and when we see them, we’ll be greeting them with “Merry Christmas!” Christmas doesn’t have much religious meaning for us, but we’ll still make sure our tree is decorated with a star on top.