This has been proved by statistics released by the Kerala State Beverages Corporation which holds monopoly in the procurement and distribution of alcohol.
 Accordingly, alcohol worth Rs 74 crore was sold in the five days from December 20 to 24, about Rs 14 crores more than the figures of last year.

Sales were the highest on Christmas eve touching Rs 18.6 crore, roughly Rs six crore more than those last Christmas. It may be noted that this does not include illicit liquor which flows in from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and is freely available in the border areas.  As usual, the KSBC outlet in Chalakkudi, a prominent Christian-dominated area, maintained its reputation as the lead shop with a record-breaking sale of Rs 15.05 lakh on December 24 and Rs 8.47 lakh on December 25.

Symbolic gesture
According to Cardinal Vithayathil, habitual drinking of alcohol was ruining families in Kerala. He had personally written to 100,000 families in the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese to ensure a liquor-free Christmas as a ''symbolic gesture.''

While the Church was not demanding the imposition of prohibition at present, it would like to caution the people as alcohol consumption was becoming a habit and even children as young as 14 years were being offered liquor,Mar Varkey Vithayathil pointed out.