Analysis from Oxford Partnership and payments provider Dojo found an estimated 2.75m pints were sold on Christmas Eve 2025, compared with 2.37m on Mad Friday.
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Christmas Eve was also more valuable for venues, with Dojo recording average card sales of £1,716 per pub, 6.7% higher than the £1,608 recorded on Mad Friday.
Across comparable key festive dates, draught rate of sales (RoS) increased by 4.2% year-on-year.
Christmas Eve outperformed this, rising 5.5%, while Mad Friday declined by 0.9%.
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However, the data also highlighted significant differences in where and when customers choose to drink on the two occasions.
Mad Friday, traditionally associated with colleagues finishing work and celebrating the start of the Christmas break, remained heavily focused on city centres.
City-centre venues recorded an average draught RoS of 358 pints, compared with 312 in urban locations and 257 in suburban venues.
Shifting patterns
By Christmas Eve, the pattern had changed markedly.
City-centre RoS fell by 34.9% compared with Mad Friday, while urban venues grew by 12.5%, suburban pubs by 34.4% and rural venues by 29.5%.
Dojo’s payment data showed a similar shift. Average city-centre card sales fell 52%, from £3,620 per venue on Mad Friday to £1,736 on Christmas Eve.
Meanwhile, suburban venues recorded an 18.2% increase to £1,641, while rural pubs saw average sales rise 28.3% to £1,937.
Oxford Partnership said the findings suggested trade shifts from city centres to neighbourhood and rural pubs as Christmas approaches, with consumers returning home to spend time with friends, family and local communities.
Trading patterns throughout the day were also markedly different.
On Mad Friday, 43.7% of daily revenue was generated between 7pm and 11pm, with spending peaking between 9pm and 10pm.
Meanwhile, Christmas Eve trade built considerably earlier, with 42.2% of revenue generated between 3pm and 7pm and spending peaking between 5pm and 6pm, before falling significantly after 9pm.
Finding opportunities
The contrasting trading patterns could affect staffing, stock and service, with city-centre pubs preparing for a late-evening Mad Friday surge and neighbourhood venues for earlier Christmas Eve demand.
Oxford Partnership added the differences could also influence entertainment, food offers and opening hours.
Looking at spending patterns, Christmas Eve’s higher average was not primarily driven by substantially larger purchases. Dojo recorded an average transaction value of £14.21 on Mad Friday and £14.53 on Christmas Eve.
Instead, average transactions per venue increased from 113 to 118, with suburban and rural locations contributing to the growth.
The contrasting occasions could be particularly significant in 2026, when Christmas Eve falls on a Thursday, followed by Christmas Day on Friday and Boxing Day on Saturday.
Commenting on the data, Oxford Partnership CEO Alison Jordan said: “Mad Friday and Christmas Eve are both hugely important trading occasions, but the data shows how differently consumers behave on each.
“For operators, understanding not just how much is sold, but where, when and how customers are spending, gives them a much clearer picture of the opportunity and allows them to plan staffing, stock and their offer around the occasion.”
- This is the first instalment of Oxford Partnership’s Christmas Opportunity Series for The Morning Advertiser, exploring where the biggest commercial opportunities could sit for pubs this Christmas.
