Results of a Christmas survey by Hastings Adventure Golf.
The team at Hastings Adventure Golf in East Sussex love the festive season and recently carried out a survey which revealed that the majority of adults in Sussex would prefer to receive ‘help’ rather than a gift this Christmas.
What do you want for Christmas?
The survey revealed that 75% of those polled said help with dog walking, gardening, babysitting or cleaning is the gift they would prefer to receive this Christmas.
Despite this, 51% said that they generally gift in excess of 20 presents at Christmas, with a further 14% gifting in excess of 40 presents. 45% of respondents said they have no intention of cutting back on the number of presents they buy this year, with almost 9 in ten people (87%) intending to give wrapped gifts, in paper with sellotape.
As a result, Sussex residents will bin up to 136,000 rolls of wrapping paper over the holiday season and around four black bags of gift packaging per household. Nationally that’s 108 million rolls of wrapping paper going to landfill.
Given this, its unsurprising that half of those surveyed agreed that their household generated more waste last Christmas than could fit in their bins.
Hastings Adventure Golf has now launched its Naked Christmas campaign to encourage the reduction of wrapping. The Naked Christmas campaign is hoping to persuade people to give unwrapped gifts this Christmas and help make the festive season less waste producing.
Hastings Adventure Golf mascot Caddie Bear wants you to go naked this Christmas
Simon Tompkins of Hastings Adventure Golf said: “The figures associated with Christmas gift wrapping are astounding. By running this campaign we are hoping to highlight the astounding levels of needless waste and associated landfill costs of using wrapping paper, while outlining ways of solving the situation by giving ‘naked’ or unwrapped gifts. This one small effort alone can make a massive difference. Gift vouchers for experiences or home made vouchers that gift your help make a great alternative.”
Tips on cutting back on the use of packaging and wrapping this Christmas, include:
Don’t wrap gifts - you can explain to the recipient why
If you need to wrap - choose your wrapping paper carefully. Not all paper is recyclable and before recycling remove any sticky tape and decorations such as ribbons and bows as these cannot be recycled.
Gift someone your time instead of a present – make your own gift vouchers for babysitting, dog walking, gardening, cleaning.
Think about vouchers for an experience - these create fun memories - plus the bonus of no waste, no packaging.
Survey conducted by Hastings Adventure Golf among residents of Sussex in October and November 2019. There were 496 respondents. Related blog posts:
- Christmas
- Hastings Adventure Golf
In 2012 there was a six-week pop-up Crazy Golf course at Piccadilly Place in Manchester
Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida is home to two permanent 18-hole minigolf courses known as Disney's Winter Summerland Miniature Golf. Our friend Shelley Barrett has played them.
The story-line side of the Disney Winter Summerland Miniature Golf course
Minigolf is becoming more and more popular and has grown from being a traditional outdoor seaside summer activity to become a year-round game that can be played indoors, outdoors and at pretty much any time of the day.
Many businesses are also booking Christmas parties at miniature golf courses around the UK and there are certainly a lot of venues suited to cater for groups, with many minigolf centres now featuring bars and restaurants too.
Given the minigolf boom I wonder how many specifically Christmas-themed courses we'll see this festive season? If you know of any, please do get in touch.
Christmas Crazy Golf in years gone by
I won the Chrizy Golf Masters tournament in November 2012
A look back at the Chrizy Golf Masters minigolf competition in Manchester.
The Chrizy Golf course was nicely decked out in Christmas-theming
Six years ago today I headed up to Manchester while my friend and minigolf rival John Moore travelled down from Newcastle to compete in the first - and to-date only - Chrizy Golf Masters tournament.
A look back at the Chrizy Golf Masters competition.
The Chrizy Golf course was decked out in Christmas-theming
Five years ago I headed up to Manchester while my friend and minigolf rival John Moore travelled down to compete in the first - and to-date only - Chrizy Golf Masters tournament.
One of the holes on the tricky indoor layout
The one night only event was held on an Christmas-themed indoor pop-up Crazy Golf course at Manchester Piccadilly. Played over one 9-hole round I managed to beat John by one-shot to take the victory with a score of 20(+2).
Our scorecards from the tourney
Another trophy to sit on shelf
After the 2012 festive season was over the course was gone and the building remained empty, or used for other pop-ups, until the team at Junkyard Golf made it their home a couple of years ago. They too have since moved on to a permanent venue at First Street.
It was great to compete in the Chrizy Golf Masters competition and it's still one of the few courses I've played that has been decked out for Christmas. It was certainly the only bespoke festive-themed course I've played.
Back then the journey up to Manchester from Luton seemed like a very long way, now it'd be less than half hour from Cheadle Hulme!
Results of a Christmas list survey by Hastings Adventure Golf.
The team at Hastings Adventure Golf has conducted a survey which reveals that technology is slipping down the Christmas wish list of adults in Sussex.
What's on your Christmas wish list?
The survey revealed that technology, including mobile devices, PC and games, was not in the most desired category of gifts this year.
The unexpected revelation showed that the most wanted category of Christmas gifts was ‘clothes or accessories’. In close second place, was ‘an experience’ to include tickets to events, days out and mini-breaks. Technology took third place.
When asked specifically about ‘gift vouchers’ for days out or experiences, 50 percent of the adults surveyed agreed that the gift of an experience or day out was a great present.
With many people already owning more tech devices than ever before, active, fun and memorable experiences are becoming more popular as a gift choices.
Hastings Adventure Golf is always keen to get more people active and they run a number of events, competitions and promotions throughout the year. They have three outdoor minigolf courses on the seafront site - a classic Crazy Golf, an Adventure Golf layout and a Pirate Golf course. We've visited and played them a LOT on our Crazy Golf adventures since 2007!
While new technology might not be top of Christmas wish lists the Hastings Adventure Golf App has proved to be a popular free download to help people make the most of the experience.
Players visiting Hastings Adventure Golf can download the scorecard and loyalty app to keep a record of their visits and results, use the on-course selfie spot feature, and receive offers.
Finding out about the Holiday Lights Mini Golf and festivities at Fun Fore All Family Fun Park in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania.
A view of the Holiday Lights Mini Golf course
We love sharing what's going on in the world of minigolf through our blog and social media channels and it's brilliant to see courses getting involved with different festivities.
One such course is Fun Fore All in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. The team there love theming their two 18-hole courses and recently had a successful Halloween. Now attention has turned to Christmas and their Holiday Lights Mini Golf which runs from November 17th to January 2nd.
Fun Fore All Family Fun Park's two 18-hole miniature golf courses are being transformed into a fully playable walk-through holiday lights experience.
The courses will have a variety of themed festive lights including Country & Western, penguins, the Taj Mahal, under the sea, and a Victorian Christmas. Holiday Lights Mini Golf will also have a walk-through light tunnel, a twenty-foot Christmas tree, and a holiday musical show that plays several times an hour.
It sounds brilliant. We love seeing courses getting involved in different events and seasonal activities. On our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour we've seen a few Christmas-themed layouts, including the Chrizy Golf course in Manchester back in 2012!
Running from November 17th through to January 2nd from 5-10pm each night, the event is also packed with many other holiday inspired activities for the festive season including live reindeer, free pictures with Santa Claus every Friday and Saturday night, Christmas cookie decorating, a drop off for letters to Santa, a holiday concert, face painting, balloon art, caricature art, and great holiday food and drinks like hot chocolate, hot apple cider from Soergel Orchards, smores, and gourmet Kettle Korn, cinnamon roasted nuts & caramel apples from J.D.’s Popcorn. For a complete list of events, visit the Fun Fore All Holiday Lights website.
A portion of the proceeds raised during the Holiday Lights Mini Golf event are going to benefit Highmark’s Caring Place, which provides support for children grieving the loss of a loved one. Visit the Highmark’s Caring Place website to learn more about. Holiday Lights Mini Golf is $10 per person for one course or $15 for both courses.
For more information and the schedule for the Holiday Lights Mini Golf check out the Fun Fore All Fun Park website. You can take a Virtual Tour of Fun Fore All online too.
With the festive season fast approaching Southend-on-Sea has got it's Christmas lights up already. Although they're not yet lit. The 'Christmas-on-Sea' lights on the Southend Central bridge were quite eye catching.
Welcome to Christmas-on-Sea!
It was great to see Southend nice and busy during our all-too-brief visit over the weekend. It was the first time we've been to the seaside town and NOT had time to play any minigolf. The courses we're proving a hit with the holidaymakers, locals and day-trippers.
A revisit to the Mini Golf courses at the Leopoldpark in Blankenberge, Belgium.
Emily recently returned to Blankenberge in Belgium she noticed there was a large Christmas decoration still standing next to the miniature golf courses at the Leopoldpark.
Not a wacky waving inflatable, but a decent looking snowman Christmas decoration
You can see the snowman to the left of the snookergolf course
While there Emily also took a few more snaps of the colourful minigolf, crazy golf and snooker golf courses at the Leopoldpark. They do look marvellous and we can't wait to return and actually play them!
Another view of the Snookergolf course. It looks like a brilliant game
On her last visit Emily spotted there was also a Petanque terrain at the Leopoldpark. This time she spotted there are some undercover pistes there too. Looks like a great spot to play some boules.
The uncovered Petanque pistes
The undercover Boulodrome
Visit the Leopoldpark website for more information about the courses, opening times and prices.
Over the past month or so I've seen some pretty dreary Christmas trees, but while having a wander down Prince's Street in Stockport I spotted what must rank as the worst looking festive thing ever!