Celebration Capitals Of The UK: How Much Does Your City Spend On Festivities?
Published · Updated
As Christmas fast-approaches and with decorations and lights starting to line the streets of towns and cities across the UK, it’s only a matter of time before evenings alight with Christmas, fireworks begin to light up the night sky and Christmas cards come flooding through the letterbox.
Many of us will have fond memories of Christmas light switch-ons in our hometowns or Bonfire Night displays, and for families up and down the UK this often marks the beginning of the festive period for many. But which is the UK’s most celebration loving city and who’s getting treated to the most festivities.
To find out, we’ve submitted a Freedom of Information request to the local authorities of 60 of the most populated UK towns and cities*.
We asked questions around the amount of money spent on Christmas decorations, including lights, trees, decorations, fireworks and the budget allocated to individual events like Bonfire Night, Diwali and Christmas, all dating back from 2016 to the planned budget for 2022.
Here’s what we found:
Aberdeen is one of the UK’s most festive places!
That’s right, Aberdonians are in for a treat this Christmas, with our data revealing an average spend for every 1,000 people of £1,448 this Christmas on decorations across the city. On average, the city allocates £290,607 to festivities each year, with the amount increasing by 10.48% between 2016 and 2022, where £352,060 is planned to be spent.
Hopefully revellers in the city this Christmas will be sure to snap a pic in front of the Castlegate Christmas tree and will plan on admiring it each time they pass, with the cost of it coming in at a huge £10,550.
The cost of fireworks this Bonfire Night at Beach Boulevard will amount to £47,053, almost double the £25,000 spent in 2016, so be sure to wrap up and make the trip out.
If you’re looking to visit a city this Christmas to take in the festivities, Aberdeen is a strong contender, according to our data!
Leicester lands in mid-table for it’s festive fun
Leicester has what is regarded as the largest Diwali celebrations outside of India and the budgets don’t lie, with £35,000 dedicated to the event annually! That’s almost three times the budget allocated in Edinburgh (£10,000) and £10k more than Wolverhampton’s (£25,000).
While the Leicester city council also spends a whopping £50,000 on lights and £5k on the clock tower Christmas tree. Leicester residents can expect a modest average spend of £332.51 per 1,000 people this year for Christmas festivities!
The scale of festivities in Wolverhampton are on the increase
All of the cities in our data spent over £100 on average for every 1,000 people on festivities but in comparison to other local authorities on the list, Wolverhampton spent the least on Christmas celebrations on average per 1,000 people, at £114.72.
Despite that figure though, the council plans to spend £62,370 on Christmas in 2022 an increase of 333% on what was spent in 2016 – the largest increase across of all the cities we analysed.
Christmas is on the decrease for some
Festive budgets in Peterborough, Bolton, Stoke and Cardiff have all been reduced by more than half since 2016. But with years of investment into Christmas, it’s likely that many of the lights and decorations are still in full working order and our data shows that average spend per 1,000 people in these areas is also fairly healthy, so it’s not completely bad news for those living in these areas.
The full table of data is below, which shows expenditures in 2016, budgets for 2022 and how these differ, along with the average spend of all years between 2016 and 2022 and the average spend per 1,000 people in each area.
| Council | Population | 2016 | 2022 | % Change | Avg. Spend | Avg spend/1000 |
| Aberdeen | 200680 | £318,664.04 | £352,060.00 | 10.48 | £290,607.32 | £1,448.11 |
| Dundee | 148280 | £170,901.73 | £110,000.00 | -35.64 | £141,612.30 | £955.03 |
| Bolton | 202369 | £292,113.24 | £100,000.00 | -65.77 | £192,346.17 | £950.47 |
| Peterborough | 175680 | £135,800.00 | £52,582.00 | -61.28 | £99,047.00 | £563.79 |
| Newcastle | 281842 | £112,249.00 | N/A | N/A | £126,354.50 | £448.32 |
| Cheltenham BID | 117843 | £60,424.00 | £47,000.00 | -22.22 | £49,946.43 | £423.84 |
| Bradford | 361046 | £151,000.00 | £151,000.00 | 0.00 | £151,000.00 | £418.23 |
| Leicester | 470965 | £147,200.00 | £150,000.00 | 1.90 | £156,600.00 | £332.51 |
| Ipswich | 150334 | £37,131.56 | £61,460.00 | 65.52 | £49,773.73 | £331.09 |
| Swansea | 184436 | £53,710.00 | £60,000.00 | 11.71 | £60,866.71 | £330.02 |
| Watford | 140902 | Not Held | £44,100.00 | N/A | £46,220.00 | £328.03 |
| Sunderland | 175031 | £46,979.00 | N/A | N/A | £55,971.67 | £319.78 |
| Edinburgh | 488050 | £128,203.25 | £140,000.00 | 9.20 | £155,206.17 | £318.01 |
| Chelmsford | 181500 | £53,557.00 | £30,000.00 | -43.98 | £56,717.95 | £312.50 |
| Cardiff | 350558 | £124,000.00 | £0.00 | -100 | £101,238.57 | £288.79 |
| Coventry | 369127 | £54,612.00 | £172,000.00 | 214.95 | £99,772.29 | £270.29 |
| Southampton | 269231 | £49,066.85 | £87,000.00 | 77.31 | £72,422.78 | £269.00 |
| Newport BID | 133353 | £33,276.00 | N/A | N/A | £33,743.94 | £253.04 |
| Basildon | 115269 | £27,383.11 | £17,900.00 | -34.63 | £24,693.52 | £214.23 |
| Sheffield | 544402 | £94,292.00 | £120,000.00 | 27.26 | £115,184.57 | £211.58 |
| Gloucester | 146667 | / | £31,450.00 | N/A | £27,311.98 | £186.22 |
| Slough | 164046 | £30,000.00 | £0 | N/A | £30,000.00 | £182.88 |
| Blackpool | 145722 | £18,023.00 | £26,544.00 | 47.28 | £24,841.43 | £170.47 |
| Stoke | 277051 | £134,974.77 | £10,000.00 | -92.59 | £46,428.76 | £167.58 |
| Plymouth | 241179 | £37,500.00 | £37,500.00 | 0.00 | £37,500.00 | £155.49 |
| Liverpool | 579256 | £90,000.00 | £85,000.00 | -5.56 | £87,857.14 | £151.67 |
| Watford | 140902 | Not Held | £19,600.00 | N/A | £19,920.00 | £141.37 |
| Hull | 288671 | £15,170.00 | £47,343.00 | 212.08 | £40,681.00 | £140.93 |
| Wolverhampton | 218255 | £14,397.00 | £62,370.00 | 333.22 | £25,039.29 | £114.72 |
If you’re celebrating Christmas at home or further afield take a look at our personalised gifts to ensure your special someone has a Christmas to remember.
Methodology
*We worked to a cut off of 20 days for responses from local authorities. Any responses following that time frame were not recorded.
Not all authorities were able to break down individual spends and instead had a pot of budget to cover all festivities throughout the year.
The list of the largest towns and cities, along with population data was taken from https://www.thegeographist.com/uk-cities-population-1000/
