Could you go to your local even just for a soft drink and a packet of Scampi Fries this month? (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

January: the month where everyone’s clothes feel as if they’ve had a ride in the tumble drier.

Belt buckles are loosened a notch (or two, in my case), while the purse strings are tightened after a December of pure, unadulterated excess.

This month, many of us will also be swapping our bloated, well-lubricated, status for cleaner, drier living – ditching, or at least cutting down on, the booze.

Understandably, for many that also means cutting out the pub – remove the temptation, and you save on both money and calories.

And, with more alcohol-free options than ever before available on supermarket shelves, staying at home seems as tempting as a crisp pint from your local boozer.

But if we continue swerving our much-loved pubs in their already lean winter months, we could lose them for good.

Emmie and her husband (Picture: Emmie Harrison-West)

That’s why I want people to continue visiting hospitality venues in January, even if they are attempting sobriety.

Polling shows an estimated 9million people are going dry this month, with a third of those surveyed planning to cut down altogether in 2023.

As a beer writer, people are usually shocked to see me with a Coke Zero or alcohol-free pint.

This year though, I’m having a ‘damp January’ – I’m cutting down, but not out, and probably will continue to do so throughout the year. Still, I will be regularly hitting my local.

We really don’t realise how lucky we have it, to have such an extraordinary pub culture in this country (Picture: Emmie Harrison-West)

And I beg you to do the same; don’t forget about your favourite pub or brewery taproom – it needs you now more than ever.

After years of uncertainty, with doors opening and closing thanks to the pandemic, and millions of pints of fresh beer being poured down the drain while we yo-yoed in and out of lockdown, our pubs go into 2023 weather-beaten and scarred. Hardly a happy new year.

Last October, it was revealed that 50 a week were closing their doors for the last time in England and Wales due to rising inflation, labour and energy costs.

Plus, in 2022, we lost an estimated 80 breweries – with pubs and other hospitality venues at risk of bankruptcy without government support, especially as the prospect of energy bills climbing higher from April looms.

If anything, the pub is a place to keep warm and have a chat with staff (Picture: Emmie Harrison-West)

Will you be going to your local this month? Have your say in the comments belowComment Now

Not only that, but rail strikes peppering the winter months meant that Christmas parties were cancelled nationwide, leaving tables empty, and pint glasses dry in what is usually the busiest, most lucrative season of the year for hospitality.

One trade body estimated that £1.5billion had been lost in December alone.

With those numbers, it’s easy to have a glass half empty approach.

Yes, there’s no denying that the cost-of-living crisis affects us all – pint prices are going up, which makes staying at home far more tempting.

But could you go to your local even just for a soft drink and a packet of Scampi Fries this month?

If anything, the pub is a place to keep warm and have a chat with staff who need your custom to keep their jobs (and sanity) during the toughest times this country has seen in decades.

I’m not risking my favourite venue closing for good by avoiding it altogether this month

They could even help beat the dreaded January blues, too.

Research from the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) shows that pubs are the heart of the community – vital, safe, and relaxed hubs for socialising that play a key role in facilitating friendships. Reports found that those who have a local pub are happier, more trusting and better connected to their community, too.

It’s just one of the reasons that CAMRA is encouraging the sober curious to reap the social benefits of getting cosy in their local this month – and I have to agree.

I love the company and surroundings of the pub as much as I love a pint – and I have many alcohol-free tinnies in my fridge – but I’m not risking my favourite venue closing for good by avoiding it altogether this month.

Where else can you stroke a friendly dog by a roaring fire with a crisp pint of fresh, local beer – not available anywhere else – poured beautifully, with such passion?

Where else do you freely chat with your neighbours, or play weathered games of Scrabble, surrounded by cold pints in heavy-set glasses, pork scratchings and pals?