75% of adults in the UK will be spending an average of 4 hours on the internet on Christmas day. Broadband providers such as BT and Sky have seen an unprecedented surge in online usage over the festive period in recent years, with streaming platforms taking a huge leap in popularity.

Christmas morning seemed to be peak time for internet usage, probably with people opening their new gifts like smartphones and tablets and immediately connecting them. Sharing snippets of their Christmas on social media was also a popular pastime up until early afternoon when everyone was likely munching on their turkey and then falling asleep in front of the tv full of Christmas dinner.

A third of people will use the internet via Skype or WhatsApp to make voice and video calls to loved ones, and 22% plan to use apps to play family games such as Trivial Pursuit.

And let’s not forget those who will be streaming festive films on Christmas Day – A quarter of you are likely to be using streaming services and downloads to watch Christmas TV.

Or maybe you are the one in five who seek out the January sales and want to grab an early bargain.

With smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, laptops and other internet-enables devices being the top of many Christmas lists, it’s no wonder that households welcome multiple new devices on the 25^th – All of which will be connecting to the home Wi-Fi.

It’s obvious that people are relying more on reliable Wi-Fi on Christmas day and throughout the festive period – And not to avoid family time, but to enhance it. Whether that’s keeping in touch with people you can’t see face to face, Googling a new brussel sprout recipe (fried with Pancetta, anyone?) or choosing a festive film to watch together after dinner, the need for Wi-Fi is there.

Here are some top tips to keep your Wi-Fi connected this Christmas:

1. Check the location of your router. Make sure it’s located away from thick walls and windows. Also try not to place it next to a shared wall in case your neighbour has theirs in a similar location (this could cause interference with yours).
2. Avoid signal interference. Make sure your router is placed away from electrical devices, such as baby monitors, cordless phones and even your Christmas lights! Other things such as the water in fish tanks can make for weaker Wi-FI signal.
3. Do you have privacy settings? Ensure your Wi-Fi network is password protected. Not only will it mean you are in control of whether your guests can connect to your internet, you will also stop anyone else (e.g. neighbours) from using your Wi-Fi and subsequently slowing it down.
4. Stay up-to-date. Did you know that download speeds can be improved simply by making sure you have the latest update of your browser? It may even be worth checking other providers and versions to see which one is best.
5. Do you need everything to be connected? If you have multiple devices all connected at once then you might see some issues with speed. If there are any devices connected that don’t need to be, then consider switching them off until you need them.

If you have a house hold full of online gamers desperate to try out their new game, or are trying to stream The Holiday for the 10^th time this month whilst 3 other family members are uploading photos to Facebook, watching Instagram TV and downloading the latest software onto their latest device then you might be putting an unlimited DSL or fibre package at the top of your Christmas list.