WOMEN would choose partner over a celebrity to be the first person to greet them at new year, a new poll has found.
Almost a third of women chose their beau over heart-throbs such as David Beckham or Robert Pattinson.
Such are the emotions attached to seeing in the New Year, it has become an event which has always been associated with rituals including the custom ‘First Footing’.
This tradition dictates that the first person to cross a home’s threshold after midnight on New Year’s Eve will determine the homeowner’s luck for the new year.
The ideal ‘First Foot’ bears whisky and coal for the fire and should traditionally be a dark-haired man (a reference to when the fair-haired Vikings invaded Scotlandand a blond visitor was not a good omen).
Over 2,000 Brits were asked in a YouGov poll to choose their dream ‘First-Foot’ from a list of high-profile people and their own male partner.
The most popular celebrity choices amongst women were actors George Clooney (10%) and Colin Firth (10%) who were closely followed by Take That’s Gary Barlow (7%) and footballer David Beckham (7%).
Unsurprisingly, amongst women surveyed aged between 18-24 who selected their dream first-foot, Twilight star Robert Pattinson (11%) was the most popular celebrity chosen, closed followed by Prince Harry (10%).
Marriage
X-Factor judge Gary Barlow was the most popular celebrity choice for women surveyed in the age ranges 25 to 34 and 35 to 44 with 10% and 11% of their vote respectively.
Amongst women aged between 45 to 54 and 55+, Oscar winning actor Colin Firth was the most popular celebrity chosen, 15% and 13% respectively.
None of the 2062 Brits surveyed chose Scottish tennis player Andy Murray as their dream First-Foot, perhaps echoing his less than prosperous performance on the court this year where he has failed to win a Grand Slam final.
Prime Minister David Cameron also failed to secure support, with only 1% of women choosing him as their dream First-Foot while US President Barack Obama, secured 4% of the female vote.
Founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg was also unsuccessful in being chosen by 0% as their dream First-Foot despite being behind one of the most successful global businesses and worth an estimated US$17.5billion (Forbes, March 2011).
It seems that those living as married are more loyal to their male partners than those that are married or in a civil partnership with nearly half (45%) of women that are living as married choosing their male partner as their dream First-Foot compared to only a third (33%) of those that are actually married or in a civil partnership.
Traditional ‘First-footing’ gifts are whisky and a piece of a coal; the coal symbolises the wish for the receiver’s home to be warm and safe for the coming year and the bottle of whisky is for toasting the future.
The poll was commissioned by Glenmorangie whisky.
