Don't Close Your Christmas Draw Early: What December's Giving Data Tells UK Clubs

Most club Christmas draws are planned backwards. The committee picks a draw date in mid-December — "before everyone goes away" — and works back from there. It feels sensible. The data says it's the wrong way round. goDonate's 2026 Online Christmas Donations Insights Report, published this month and covering December 2025, found that about one in six December donations landed in the final 72 hours before Christmas Day, and that about two-thirds of Christmas Eve gifts were made on a phone. If your draw has closed by then, you've shut the till during the busiest shopping hours of the year. Here's what the numbers show, how to lay out a Christmas 2026 draw around them, and the phone checks worth doing before you launch.

What December 2025 actually looked like

goDonate runs online donation pages for UK charities, so this is real transaction data, not a survey. The headline figures, as reported by UK Fundraising and Civil Society:

• 15.4% of all one-off December donations were made between 22 and 24 December.
• 27% came in the week before that, 15–21 December. Put the two together and roughly 42% of December's one-off giving happened in the ten days before Christmas.
• Christmas Eve alone accounted for 6.2% of the month's donations — the single biggest festive giving day.
• 2% of December's one-off gifts were made on Christmas Day itself, and 77% of those were on mobile.
• 67% of Christmas Eve gifts came from a phone, against 57% across December as a whole.
• 53% of Christmas Eve payments went through PayPal, Apple Pay or Google Pay, against 47% for the month.

goDonate's CEO Vicky Reeves put it bluntly: "The final days of the campaign must be treated as some of the most important; not the point at which activity is ending." Her two recommendations to charities were to keep donation pages live up to and including Christmas Day, and to make sure checkout works properly on mobile and digital wallets all month.

A fair caveat before you move your draw date

This is charity donation data, not prize draw ticket data, and a £46 average gift to a national charity isn't the same decision as a £5 ticket for the under-12s' new kit. So don't treat the percentages as a forecast for your club.

But the behaviour underneath them transfers. It's the same people, on the same phones, in the same week, clearing the same "I must sort that before Christmas" list. The grandparent who meant to buy a ticket when the link went round the parents' WhatsApp group in November is exactly the person who remembers on the evening of the 23rd — and finds the draw closed. Every club treasurer has heard some version of "I was going to, but it had finished."

How to lay out a Christmas 2026 draw

Christmas Day falls on a Friday this year, which gives you a tidy calendar. Here's a layout built around where the giving actually happens:

• Plan in October, launch mid-November. Four to six weeks of selling time still matters — the late surge rewards draws that people already know about. It doesn't rescue a draw nobody has heard of.
• Push one: Giving Tuesday, 1 December. A natural early nudge while "giving" is in the news.
• Push two: the week of 14–18 December. That's the 27% week. Friday 18 December is the last Friday before Christmas — goDonate's earlier reports flagged that day as a peak for one-off gifts in previous years.
• Push three: 22–24 December. The final 72 hours. Post the running total, a "last chance" reminder and a photo of what the money pays for. Ask every coach and committee member to share it on the same evening.
• Close entries late on Christmas Day, or at the very least late on Christmas Eve. Not at 5pm on the 18th.
• Draw at your Boxing Day fixture (Saturday 26 December) or live on social on Sunday 27 December. A live draw at the best-attended game of the season is a fundraising moment in its own right — and a natural launch pad for your January draw.

If your club's instinct is still "draw before people travel," the compromise is simple: keep the draw date wherever suits your volunteers, but don't let the entry window close before 24 December.

Fix the phone journey before you fix the prize

Two-thirds of Christmas Eve gifts on a phone means your draw is mostly being bought one-handed, on a sofa, halfway through something else. Every extra tap costs you entries. Before launch, get two people who've never seen the draw to buy a ticket on their own phones, on mobile data rather than the clubhouse Wi-Fi, and time it. Then check:

1. Can they pay with Apple Pay, Google Pay or PayPal? Over half of Christmas Eve payments went that way. If your platform only takes typed-in card numbers, you're asking people to find their purse on Christmas Eve. Ask your provider which wallets it supports.
2. Is there a forced account sign-up? Every form field between "I'll buy one" and "done" is a place to lose someone.
3. Does the link look right in WhatsApp? Most club tickets are sold by a link dropped into a group chat. Paste it into one and check the preview is clear about what it is and who it's for.
4. Are the ticket bundles obvious? Clear 1, 5 and 10-entry options lift the average spend without anyone feeling pushed.
5. Does the page say what the money is for, in one line? "New floodlight bulbs for the junior pitch" beats "support the club" every time.

Our guide to selling more tickets for your club's prize draw goes deeper on the promotion side.

The rules don't take a Christmas break

Late closing is fine. Changing the rules halfway through isn't. A few things to get right at the start:

• Set the close date and draw date in your terms before you launch, and stick to them. Quietly extending a draw because sales were slow is the kind of thing that erodes trust — and, depending on how your draw is structured, may not be allowed.
• Entrants must be 18 or over, and that doesn't relax because it's a festive draw bought by a grandparent for a grandchild.
• If your draw has a free postal entry route, Christmas post is slow. Set a postal deadline that's genuinely achievable and say so clearly.
• Be clear how much goes to the club. On Play Fund Win's standard 50/50 draw, 15% comes off the top and the rest splits evenly between the winner and your club — 42.5p of every £1 to the club. Put your number on the page.

If you want the full legal picture, see what UK Gambling Commission rules actually require, and our update on the Fundraising Regulator's free draw rules slipping to early 2027.

Your to-do list this week

1. Agree the cause, the prize and the owner of the promotion at your October committee meeting.
2. Put the close date (Christmas Eve or Christmas Day) and draw date (26 or 27 December) in the terms.
3. Do the two-phone test above and fix whatever slows it down.
4. Book your three pushes in the club calendar now: 1 December, 14–18 December, 22–24 December.
5. Line up a coach, captain or committee member for each push so the link goes out from real people, not just the club account.
6. Plan the live draw moment and the January follow-up.

Looking for the rest of your festive programme — quiz nights, fun runs, advent draws? We've rounded up Christmas fundraising ideas that actually work for UK clubs. Treat the draw as the backbone and keep it open for the moment people are actually giving.

Play Fund Win has helped 2,500+ UK organisations raise £1M+, and the pattern behind the best results is always the same: a clear cause, a phone-friendly link and a draw that's open when supporters are ready. Setting one up takes about ten minutes, with nothing up front and compliance built in: start your Christmas draw with Play Fund Win.