It seems Santa was smiling on the pub trade this Christmas as licensees reported healthy festive trading.
A spot check by thepublican has revealed improved takings and packed pubs during December.
Geoff Bell, licensee of the the Fox in Melksham, Wiltshire, enjoyed a 25 per cent improvement on the December period last year. He said: "We had a lot of parties and a lot of people. New Year's Eve was frantic. We did disco, canapés and drinks. We had 100 people in spending like it was going out of fashion."
Brent Castle, licensee at the Three Crowns in Ullingsworth, Herefordshire, opened between Christmas and New Year for the first time and reaped the rewards.
He said: "This year we decided it was too much to miss. Our busiest day was Christmas Eve lunch and this year was better than last year."
And Michael Duffy, licensee at the Three Crowns in Bushy Heath, Hertfordshire, enjoyed a much improved festive period.
He said: "This year was better than last year. I was extremely happy with the period between Christmas and New Year. It may be down to two pubs which closed down in the last six months. On Christmas day I took £650 in three hours. We did about £3,740 on New Year's Eve.
"Overall we are up on last year. I've got more money in the bank. But January hurts. My credit card bills come soon. But all in all I can't complain."
However, some licensees experienced quiet periods during the holidays. Barbara Haigh, licensee at the Grapes in Canary Wharf, London, was less upbeat despite a busy Christmas.
She said: "I always find you knock yourself stupid in the run up to Christmas and then everybody goes on a diet and stays off the booze, so you end up taking exactly the same amount of money over the 12 week period anyway. We had a great run up to Christmas but now we're paying for our sins. I'd rather Christmas didn't happen. Financially it's not worth it."
There were also reports from some licensees of Visa authorisation systems going into meltdown on New Year's Eve, resulting in thousands of people who had their credit cards refused.
The problems arose because the computer authorisation system could not cope with the huge rush of people in bars and restaurants trying to pay their bills at the same time.
Mr Duffy suffered a system crash at 10.30pm just as his customers were beginning to pay for dinner.
He said: "I had two consecutive customer transactions "not authorised" which got me thinking something was amiss, then a fellow restaurateur called me as he had suffered five rejections. I tried calling Barclaycard, my PDQ provider, but their 0870 number just cut out and the landline number was permanently engaged but did give a helpful "your call is important to us.....".
He added: "I was lucky in that I knew all my customers and was prepared to say just pop in tomorrow and settle up but I can imagine it caused a bit of a problem to both retailers and red faced customers when confronted with the "not authorised" message.
"The system did come back online about 11.15pm. It could have been a lot worse. I've got one outstanding still to pay but I know the people. It did slow down service, it took me off the floor and caused a lot of embarrassment amongst my customers."