YORK has been ranked as one of the best cities for Christmas shopping, a study has revealed.

Reboot Link building agency examined 21 UK cities that have a reputation for their Christmas shopping, after discovering that 70 per cent of people began their shopping on December 1.

In each city, they looked at factors such as parking costs, Christmas markets, the number of gift shops and department stores, and the average ratings of shopping centres.

They then ranked each factor out of 100 to determine the best 10 cities in the UK for Christmas shopping.

York landed the 10th best spot with an overall Christmas shopping score of 54.5 out of 100, according to Reboot Link's study.

They found that the average car parking cost in York was £2.26 per hour.

The city has 57 gift shops and 85 department stores, and the shopping centres had an average rating of 4.03 out of five.

York also has a Christmas market - as did all the top 10 cities except Leeds, which was ranked eighth.

Bristol was ranked as the best city, even higher than London which was in second place.

Bristol received an overall score of 95.5 out of 100, and London 90.9 out of 100 - although both cities had higher parking costs at £3.92 and £5.68 respectively.