THIS Christmas is going to be bigger than ever, with an estimated £38 billion to be spent by UK shoppers.

New research has calculated the most wonderful time of the year in numbers, from the nation’s Christmas eating habits to the chances of snow.

On top of spending on food, drink and presents, the UK donates around £50m a year by purchasing charity Christmas cards. Christmas cards themselves are big business, with an estimated 100 million individual cards sold and an additional 900 million sold in multipacks and by online providers, bringing in around £1.5 billion.

As well as festive cards, the average UK adult uses seven rolls of wrapping paper every Christmas. If the average roll is two metres long, the UK will use approximately 910,000,000 metres of wrapping paper which is 565,447 miles and would go around the world 22 times.

Christmas Eve

We all have different Christmas traditions and the nation seems divided on what to leave out as a snack for Father Christmas.

This Christmas Eve an estimated 16.2 million mince pies and 16.2 million carrots will be left out as snacks for Santa and his reindeer. However, with 13 million Brits leaving a whisky and 10.4 million leaving a beer, it may be that Santa shouldn’t be in the driving seat.

Christmas morning

If you are a parent with children under 16, don’t be expecting a lie in on Christmas morning, with 67 per cent of parents admitting they’re up before 6.30am – in fact, set alarms for 6.02am.

Christmas dinner

When it comes to stocking up the fridge for the big day, a new study of 1,000 UK adults by sofa and flooring specialist ScS reveals that Brits are set to spend an estimated £228 per household on food alone, with an additional £182 being spent on alcohol.

It may come as no surprise that plenty of seasonal favourites will be eaten over the festive period, although it seems that we are a nation with a sweet tooth, with 94 per cent of Brits choosing to indulge in chocolates and 71 per cent enjoying mince pies.

On average each person will:

• Chomp down an average of eight chocolates each, equating to 520,800,000 nationwide

• Guzzle six glasses of wine or fizz per person, totalling 390,600,000 across the UK

• Scoff six sprouts, equating to 390,600,000 Brussels sprouts eaten across the nation

• Munch on an average of five mince pies each, totalling 325,500,000 nationwide

• Plate up four pigs in blankets per person, which totals 260,400,000 cooked nationwide

Christmas Day evening

The research reveals that the average Brit will spend five hours on the sofa on Christmas Day, that’s a whopping 258,000 hours across the UK. Whilst on the sofa people will be tuning into some festive favourites this year with soaps dominating the programmes on people’s must-watch list: Coronation Street – 34%; EastEnders – 31%; Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special – 29%; Doctor Who – 26%; Queen’s Speech – 25%.