London, Dec 11 (ANI): British partygoers will guzzle down the equivalent of 265 million pints, 602 million shots of vodka or 286 million glasses of mulled wine this Christmas season, says a new survey.

The research was conducted by alcohol awareness charity Drinkaware.

It was found that one out of seven adults end up drinking more than they had thought and one-sixth said December was the only month when they could drink without guilt.

Almost 50percent of those surveyed said they could drink more than the recommended daily guidelines, which is three to four units a day for men and two to three units for women.

Over one-third Brits will attend three or more Christmas parties and more than half say they will guzzle drinks at most or all parties.

“For many people, December and the festive season is a time for getting together with loved ones and celebrating over a drink or two, or even more,” Sky News quoted Drinkaware’s Chris Sorek, as saying.

Sorek said: “It might feel like party time, but it’s still really important to keep track of how much you’re drinking - the long term effects of drinking to excess can last for much longer than Christmas.”

He added: “Although it seems an enormous amount, it’s likely that 602m units is actually an underestimate of how much alcohol we’ll slug over the festive season.

“Conducting an experiment to find out what Britain is drinking this Christmas will encourage people to think about how much they’ve had to drink over the last 24 hours and help to educate them about units at the same time.” (ANI)