Why more young people will celebrate a ‘dry Christmas’
Christmas is traditionally seen as time of excess – but a growing number of young people will be steering clear of alcohol this festive season. Josh Barrie reports.
IT’S 11AM on Christmas Day and you may well be on your second – third, even? – glass of Champagne. At midday, you might have a break with a pint of hoppy ale before imbibing wine with Christmas lunch. Your relative has brought a few of bottles of Pouilly Fumé and there’s some Chianti lurking about. You spotted it earlier when you pinched a sausage.
Later, indulgences will continue with a brandy or two, or a whisky. And then a Baileys, probably. Why not? It’s Christmas, and the limitations you might normally live by are so far out the window thanks to the numerous Christmas parties you’ve had to attend, they may as well be in the next town. There’s always dry January to sort yourself out.
Such traditional excess appears to be dying down, however. The youth of today, specifically 18 to 24-year-olds, are drinking less, numerous studies suggest. Spirited as Christmas might be, a lot of young people are teetotal. They won’t even have a mulled wine. More than 25 per cent of young people classed themselves as “non-drinkers” in a report by the science journal BMC Public Health.
Researchers at University College London said data suggests Britain’s loving, often wanton relationship with booze is changing. Using data from the annual health survey for England, scientists found the number of 16 to 24-year-olds who choose not to drink alcohol has risen from 18 per cent in 2005 to 29 per cent in 2015.
“The increase in young people who choose not to drink alcohol suggests that this behaviour may be becoming more acceptable, whereas risky behaviours such as binge drinking may be becoming less normalised,” Dr Linda Ng Fat, the lead author of the study, said.
How, though, will these sensible types survive Christmas? As magical a time as it is, the festive period is also taxing. Surely the work do is no fun without shots of tequila, and Boxing Day with the in-laws requires at least a couple of stiff sherries?
Jonny Cavaciuti, a 24-year-old model maker, says alcohol doesn’t cross his mind come Christmas.
“Personally, I do not have the slightest urge to drink,” says Mr Cavaciuti, whose wife Kaitlin is also teetotal. “We will be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my parents and then heading to my inlaws for Boxing Day. We’re going to have a lot of people over for dinner leading up to Christmas. Hosting and cooking is our favourite thing. I’m very happy in a pub or bar – as long as people around me aren’t too drunk.”
It’s a different situation to creative director Sean Spooner, 22. He stopped drinking when he woke up one morning and couldn’t remember what had happened the night before. “Since turning 18, my relationship with nights out and alcohol had always been very all or nothing; sometimes I’d go out sober, but more often than not, I’d be ‘that guy’ in my friendship group, drinking way too much and ending up in sticky situations.
“After a heavier than usual Christmas and New Year period last year, and having woke up on January 1 with a horrible hangover and little recollection of the night before, I took the leap to go cold turkey and completely cut out alcohol. There wasn’t any real deep thought behind it, I just reached a point where I no longer saw the upside of drinking when compared with the negatives. I haven’t had alcohol since, and can’t see myself starting again any time soon.”
Retail manager Sarah Ryan-Linstrom, 24, says she has never felt the need to drink – but will still make the most of Christmas. “We’ll have a nice big family lunch together. I’ll probably sing along to Cher and eat until I vomit.”
To some young people, it seems a Christmas doesn’t have to be “merry” to be good.