Christmas is not just about exchanging gifts and eating mince pies.
It would be amiss of us to forget how government - local and national - can also shape the time of year.
Oxford City Council ran its annual Christmas Lights Festival once again for 2023 and it included a striking display of illuminated trees, a Victorian Market as well as an appearance from Santa Claus, among other attractions.
READ MORE: Covered Market in Oxford among best popular market in UK
But how much did the council spend overall on Christmas-related decorations and leisure?
Well, it turns out that the figure is almost £85,000.
A Freedom of Information request by the Oxford Mail revealed that budgeted spend for the 2023 Christmas Lights Festival was £40,218.
The actual spend to date for festive lighting in the city centre, as calculated on December 15, was £33,200.
Town hall decorations cost £325 and the amount spent on theming of the Main Hall and other large rooms to facilitate the sale of council commercial Christmas Party products was £10,965.
Therefore, the total figure allocated for "all Christmas-related leisure including decorations and events" this year was £84,708.
As Oxfordshire's only city and county town, the figure for Oxford naturally exceeds that of other towns in the county.
Meanwhile, a Freedom of Information request to Charlbury Town Council revealed that the only expenditure per year was a modest £50 spent on a Christmas tree erected in front of the town museum.
This means Oxford spent roughly 1,700 times the amount Charlbury Town Council did on Christmas.
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