Merry Christmas from The Student Room

Tis the season to be jolly and we at The Student Room have lots to be jolly about after a fantastic year, which has seen us unveil this Insight website, our new free resource loaded with useful information for businesses that want to target the student market. And in keeping with the festive season we’ve got some Christmas Insight to share with you.

We conducted a Christmas themed survey across the site to find out what students thought about and looked forward to at Christmas.

What do you want for Christmas?

We asked this question to our active members who are always willing to share their thoughts with us and amongst the Dr Who DVDs and iPhones were requests for pocket watches, Einstein’s brain and an Emu?

So if you thought you knew what students want you might want to think again. Do you know when students do their Christmas shopping? How much do they spend? What do they value most about the festive season?

As the world’s largest student site we get students and we’re more than happy to share our knowledge with you. We know that despite the rise of MP3s causing music stores to close down, CDs are still one of the top 10 things that students want for Christmas.

45% of students expect at least £200 to be spent on them this Christmas; clothes are their highest priority with money coming a predictable second on the list with the main reason being for driving lessons so watch out for lots of learner drivers come January!

The top 10 items on students Christmas wish list:

1. Clothes
2. Money
3. Books
4. Cosmetics
5. DVD’s
6. University offer
7. Laptop
8. Games console
9. CD’s
10. MP3 player

Included in this list were a number of different brands and specific items, which you can read about here.

Other common gifts that students asked for include chocolates, digital cameras, handbags, Amazon’s Kindle and a job.

Do you leave your Christmas shopping to the last minute?

We also found out when and where students shop for Christmas and there were some surprising results:

• 73% of students do their Christmas shopping at least 2 weeks before the 25th
• 75% of students shop online for Christmas presents
• 56% will spend at least £50 on gifts for others this year

What’s your favourite thing about Christmas?

Whether it be presents, food, time off work or seeing family, everyone has something they look forward to the most at Christmas and we took the time to find out what that thing is for students:

• The majority of students said that Christmas food and spending time with their family was the most important thing
• Most will spend Christmas with their families but 30% would rather spend it elsewhere, either on their own or with friends or boy/girlfriend
• Only 15% of students will watch or listen to the Queen’s speech
• 21% will attend an organised religious event
• 62% stopped believing in Santa Claus before they were 9

Last but not least we found out what students’ top 5 Christmas films are:

1. The Snowman
2. The Grinch
3. Elf
4. The Muppet Christmas Carol
5. Miracle on 34th Street

We hope that you have found this student Insight helpful and interesting and we’d love to get your feedback in the comments box below. If you want more student Insight then subscribe to our newsletter or explore the site for loads of vital information for anyone looking to target the student market.