Thousands of people filled Preston’s Flag Market to see the Christmas Coca Cola truck make its debut in the Nations’ latest ‘Kindness Hotspot’.

A survey of 2,500 people who live on the Christmas truck route are asked about their Christmas ‘good deed habits’ , which revealed many wonderful stories from the Preston public.

The survey consisted of answers from 5 statements on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being ‘strongly disagree’ and 10 being ‘strongly agree’.

The statements were:

• I regularly volunteer or donate to charity
• I would wish Merry Christmas to a stranger
• I sometimes give food or money to a homeless person
• I’d invite an elderly relative / neighbour around for Christmas if they were alone
• I’d leave a present / tip for my bin man or milk man etc to say thank you at Christmas

Positive results from the survey showed 55% of people from Preston regularly volunteer and donate to charity.

A Coca Cola representative announced “When asked ‘What is the kindest thing you have done for someone at Christmas? One particularly caring Preston Resident told the story of how ever year they wrap their elderly neighbours Christmas presents as she suffers from arthritis.”

One story included one kind individual inviting all the new neighbours over to decorate the Christmas tree so everyone could get to know each other.

The day mirrored the atmosphere of the Christmas Light Switch on the previous week,  good weather and plenty of awareness of the event created queues forming over a 100 yards long to have a professional photo taken with the famous red truck.

Coca Cola generously gave our free cans of coke as a thank you to Preston for hosting their truck along their tour.

Santa, accompanied by one of his Elves, took time out from his busy Christmas schedule to have his photo taken with many of Preston’s children…and adults!

Brid Drohan-Stewart from Coca-Cola said: “The Coca-Cola Christmas truck marks the arrival of the festive season for a lot of people, and what better place to start spreading Christmas cheer than Preston, which is embodying what Christmas is all about. Keep up the good deeds Preston!”

The Truck’s next stop is at the Trafford Centre in Manchester on the 26^th November, Click here for more news about where the truck will go on its Christmas tour!

Flickr slideshow by Paul Melling

Did you go to the Coca Cola event today? Did you take part in the survey? Let us know in the comments below