The old holiday tune There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays is a classic melody, but to many of us the lyrics are more than just a catchy song. While many associate this holiday classic with Christmas, if you look at the words it’s actually more applicable to Thanksgiving. But in any case it was the thought behind this song that got us a Coldwell Banker Real Estate to think about just how much a home truly means during the holidays.

If you talk to anyone about their holiday plans, I guarantee the vast majority of people will be going to someone’s “house.” When you think about holiday memories of years past, is it the presents or meals that you recall or is it more about the times you had with family and friends while gathered around a table in someone’s home. For me, it was always about going to grandma’s house. Didn’t matter what holiday it was, we were headed to one of my grandmother’s house to be stuffed until we could eat no more and then hear Grandma ask “Why?” when we would tell her we couldn’t eat any more.

Now with a family of my own, my wife and I enjoy creating our own holiday traditions. Because my wife is such a great cook/baker/dessert maker extraordinaire, they usually involve food. For Thanksgiving, my wife makes a pumpkin cheesecake and a mean chocolate pecan pie while our home is decorated in pumpkins and cornucopias. For Christmas, we’ve started the tradition of gathering in the living room around the tree to open presents before breakfast and then feasting on pumpkin scones and homemade Orange Julius drinks (if you don’t know what those are, click here).

Almost everyone has some kind of holiday tradition and I’m willing to bet it involves being at someone’s home. To take this concept of home for the holidays a bit further, we surveyed consumers to get an idea of how much their home impacts their holiday festivities. What we found is that nearly 40% of those surveyed had more than 15 people staying under one roof during the holidays! I can actually relate to that as my wife has 3 siblings and in total there will be 11 grand kids, 8 parents and 2 grandparents under one roof this Christmas. Sure it’s chaos, but they’re good times as well.

We also found that there are a lot of liars out there as 77% of respondents claimed to have never tried to snoop around for presents before Christmas. Come on! Really?

Click here to read the full results of our home for the holidays survey, but you’ll also want to take a look at the video below where we interviewed consumers on the streets of New York to find out some of their favorite holiday traditions at home. Share your favorite holiday traditions at home in the comments!

http://youtu.be/3QmxkDW8myk