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On the JJ Barnes Blog, I check out tips from Clear It Waste for the best places to see Santa in the UK this Christmas Eve!
My children are desperately excited for Christmas, and as the big day approaches, the talk has, of course, turned to Father Christmas! Will they be able to go to sleep? Will they hear sleigh bells? Could they even spot him in the sky?
To find out, I’ll be looking at research from Clear It Waste Clearances for where the best places in the UK are to spot the man himself.
Seeing Santa Claus
Children in the United Kingdom will be excited to see Santa Claus flying by as Christmas draws nearer. However, seeing Santa might be difficult in some urbanized areas due to the staggering 78% of the UK’s night sky that is affected by light pollution.
Clear It Waste Clearances used lightpollutionmap.info to collect light pollution data on the Sky Quality Meter (skyglow), Artificial brightness (artificial lights), and Bortle scale (viewing)* to determine which UK city is the best for spotting Santa this year. After that, they developed an overall light pollution index score for fifty of the largest cities in the United Kingdom and revealed the city with the best chance of seeing Santa Claus fly by this year!
Key Findings
- Winchester ranked as the best UK city to spot Santa flying over this Christmas. With an overall light pollution index score of 9.43/10, they scored particularly low in Artificial brightness.
- Chichester ranked second best city to catch a glimpse of Santa overhead with an overall score of 9.03/10 based on all three criteria. Bath third with 8.83/10.
- London ranked as the worst city to spot Santa with only 0.37 points. This is followed by Westminster and Manchester.
Top Ten Best Cities To Spot Santa
| Ranking | UK City | County | Overall Light Pollution Index Score /10** |
| #1 | Winchester | Hampshire | 9.43 |
| #2 | Chichester | West Sussex | 9.03 |
| #3 | Bath | Somerset | 8.83 |
| #4 | Colchester | Essex | 8.34 |
| #5 | Worcester | West Midlands | 8.23 |
| #6 | Lichfield | Staffordshire | 8.13 |
| #7 | Cambridge | Cambridgeshire | 7.03 |
| #8 | Chelmsford | Essex | 6.77 |
| #9 | Oxford | Oxfordshire | 6.67 |
| #10 | Exeter | Devon | 6.47 |
1st: Winchester, Hampshire, 9.43/10
Winchester was rated as the city in the United Kingdom with the best chance of seeing Santa Claus flying over this Christmas! The city in central Hampshire has the lowest number of artificial lights (824), giving it an overall score of 9.43/10.
Winchester, once the UK’s capital, is famous for its large medieval city center and Christmas markets during the holidays, which show how festive the city is.
2nd: Chichester, West Sussex, 9.03/10
Chichester received an overall index score of 9.03/10, making it the second-best location this year to view Santa Claus flying overhead. On the Sky Quality Meter, the small city receives a respectable 19.85, indicating a sky that is somewhat darker and healthier than that of other UK cities. However, Chichester ranks second overall due to its slightly lower Artificial Brightness Score of 1070.
Along England’s South Coast, Chichester is known for its charming architecture, ornamental gardens, and annual theatre festival.
3rd: Bath, Somerset, 8.83/10
With a light pollution score just below 9, Bath came in third. Bath’s achievement of a commendable 5 on the Bortle Scale and its high Sky Quality Meter score of 19.71 are encouraging signs for the city’s efforts to combat light pollution. Sadly, it received a lower Artificial Brightness Score, making Bath the third best place to see Santa flying over this Christmas.
The wonderful slope city is famous for its unbending arranging consent regulations, meaning structures both old and new have a specific obsolete person that wouldn’t appear to be awkward in a Christmas snow globe.
Top Ten Worst Cities To Spot Santa
| Ranking | UK City | County | Overall Light Pollution Index Score /10 |
| #41 | Aberdeen | Aberdeenshire | 1.47 |
| #42 | Sheffield | South Yorkshire | 1.37 |
| #43 | Liverpool | Merseyside | 1.27 |
| #44 | Newcastle | Tyne & Wear | 0.97 |
| #45 | Birmingham | West Midlands | 0.87 |
| #46 | Glasgow | Lanarkshire | 0.77 |
| #47 | Leeds | West Yorkshire | 0.67 |
| #48 | Manchester | Greater Manchester | 0.57 |
| #49 | Westminster | Middlesex | 0.47 |
| #50 | London | Greater London | 0.37 |
48th: Manchester, Greater Manchester, 0.57/10
With a score of just 0.57/10, the vast metropolitan area of Manchester ranks 48th, making it the third worst city to see Santa flying over this Christmas. Manchester has one of the greatest effects of light pollution on being able to see the sky because of its disappointing scores on all three light pollution criteria.
Even though it might be difficult to spot Santa at night in Manchester, the modern, urban city has one of the biggest Christmas markets in the UK for you and your family to visit!
49th: Westminster, City of London, 0.47/10
Westminster, like London, which is more widespread, receives a very low score for access to the night sky. Westminster’s combined light pollution index score is only 0.47/10 with a Bortle Scale of 9, an SQM quantity of 17.54, and a huge artificial light score of 10,200.
50th: London, Greater London, 0.37/10
London received a score of just 0.37 out of 10 for its ranking as the worst place to see Father Christmas flying over this holiday season! Londoners who were hoping to catch a glimpse of Santa flying overhead may be disappointed because the city received the lowest score out of all three light pollution measurements the study examined.
It is evident that sacrifices have been made to night sky visibility in the UK capital, the hub of business, leisure, and sightseeing, with super-bright LED streetlights limiting what can be seen above.
Methodology
1. Clear It Waste Clearances were intrigued to find out the best UK cities for spotting Santa this Christmas.
2. To achieve this, they gained a seed list of all UK cities from gov.uk and then collected their light pollution data from a leading database lightpollutionmap.info.
3. To gain the most accurate representation of the light pollution in a city, three sets of data per location were taken : Sky Quality Meter/SQM (mag./arc sec2), Artificial Lighting (µcd/m2), and a Bortle Scale measurement (class 1 – 9). Measurements were taken from the centre of each city for maximum fairness.
* Sky Quality Meter/SQM is a measurement to quantify the skyglow aspect of light pollution. Artificial Lighting score indicates the artificial lights scattered in the atmosphere which raises night sky luminance. Bortle Scale measures to what extent light pollution affects your view of the night sky. A city with less light pollution would result in a higher SQM score and lower Artificial Lighting and Bortle Scale scores.
4. An overall rank score out of 10 was created for each location based on the average percentrank formula on the 3 variables, uncovering the best UK city to see Santa fly past.
5. Only UK cities with a population over 100,000 were considered into the full ranking, but all cities’ data could be found in the dataset here Onedrive.
6. Sources such as Campaign to Protect Rural England, City of London, Visit Manchester, Chichester Theatre Festival and more all contributed information to this piece.
7. All data was completed on 22/11/2022 and is correct as of then.
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