ASSAULT, criminal damage, affray, harassment –- not things you would usually associate with Christmas Day.

The above offences were all reasons 16 people were arrested in Warrington on December 25, as most residents in the town swapped presents and enjoyed turkey.

Half of that number were in the early hours of the morning in the town centre.

The others were between 1.50pm and 10pm in domestic settings across the town, as the odd family get-together came to a head.

Latest figures obtained via a Freedom of Information request show 62 arrests were made in total on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, December 27, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Sup Martin Cleworth said the figure was lower than expected.

Bridge Street and neighbouring streets proved the most common location as revellers enjoyed time off work.

Sup Cleworth said: “Arrests were lower than we expected with incidents of serious violence particularly low.

“Some bars had promotions on and we worked with those bars to get the people causing trouble out of town early.

“On Christmas Day and Boxing Day, often we get called to incidents where familiesy have come back together and tensions have come to a head.

“We saw some of that this year and our responsibility is to respond appropriately and deal with any issues in a sensitive manner, where appropriate.”

The most common offences over the holidays were assaults, often committed late at night, and possession of drugs.

Between 6.45pm on New Year’s Eve and 8.40am on New Year’s Day, 12 arrests were made with one major incident.

A police officer was assaulted on Barbauld Street by a 28-year-old man, while a 24-year-old man was arrested for ABH at the same time on Bridge Street.

Hours later at 6.40am a 32-year-old man was arrested for GBH on Church Street.

In total 52 men and 10 women were taken into police custody over Christmas.

The youngest was a 15-year-old girl, arrested for threatening behaviour at 4.32pm on New Year’s Day, close to Warrington Hospital.

And a 16-year-old girl was arrested at 3am on New Year’s Day for being drunk and disorderly in Longford.

Police say many of the incidents involved alcohol.

John Dwyer, Police and Crime Commissioner, said the ‘excessive demand’ of booze-related crime needs tackling as it costs the health service police and local authorities £3 billion a year.