Court six at Manchester magistrates court is never the cheeriest place. As the city's only courtroom dedicated to domestic violence, its stock in trade is relentless familial misery. Usually men beating their wives or girlfriends, although occasionally the other way around, with the odd child-beating parent, parent-beating child or volatile same-sex relationship to mix things up.

Most of the courtrooms across England and Wales shut up shop between Christmas and new year. But not court six. Along with football derby days, the festive period is prime time for domestic abuse, according to Greater Manchester police (GMP). Tensions over money and unrealistic expectations about having the "perfect" Christmas, combined with excessive alcohol, consumed in an enclosed space, are thought to lie behind the annual spike, which is repeated across the country.

So many domestics kicked off in Manchester on Christmas Day this year – 35 incidents in the north Manchester division, compared with around 20 on a normal day – that Court six had to open for business on Saturday to deal with the backlog. It was still wading through cases on Tuesday as the clock counted down to 2014. To cope with the increased demand, GMP allocated more officers to attend incidents, backed up by specialist domestic violence investigators. "Domestic violence tends to go hand in hand with alcohol," said DC Sarah Harris, a domestic abuse officer with GMP. "So we brace ourselves at this time of year."

Many of the 35 cases on Christmas Day began with the most mundane arguments, said Harris. "One mother and daughter were arguing in the street because the mum hadn't got the Christmas dinner ready when the daughter wanted it, and the neighbours called the police. We ended up having to take the daughter to her dad's. Another man was charged with breach of the peace after an argument with his wife, which began when she locked him out after accusing him of not helping enough with the Christmas meal.

"On Christmas Eve, a 60-year-old man threw a boiling kettle over his wife after a row that began after he ordered her to get him some clothes because he was cold. She ended up with a fractured neck after falling down the stairs.

"The things people argue about, you wouldn't believe," Harris added. "Once we were called out after a row that began because a woman thought her boyfriend was more attracted to Katy Perry than her."

In court six on Tuesday, magistrates were kept busy with a stream of festive spirit-draining cases that lingered on from Christmas like a hangover from hell.

There was a 19-year-old lad from Eccles, in Salford, denying spitting on his mother and smashing her windows after she refused to give him money to buy new trainers. He will now stand trial.

There was a Czech chef with previous drink-related convictions who had been in the cells since 29 December after his girlfriend called the police to allege he had pushed her into a wall and dragged her down the stairs. He denied it and was let out on bail pending trial, on the proviso that he was not allowed back to their shared home on which he pays the mortgage.

There was the 48-year-old mother from Longsight who had been locked up since Sunday accused of assaulting her 23-year-old daughter in front of her three younger children after the daughter's new dog scratched the kitchen cupboards while the family were out at a do. She admitted it and will be sentenced next year.

Then there was the 29-year-old man from Morecambe, in Lancashire, arrested after a night out in Manchester with his girlfriend. Police were called by two strangers who claimed to have seen him push her over a wall during a "heated argument". The magistrates were told the alleged victim had refused to provide a statement or even sign the officer's pocket book with an account taken at the scene.

The couple were still together. "However, the Crown wishes to proceed," said Sabrina Sohota, senior crime prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). A trial date was duly set for March.

"Getting victims to go through with a prosecution is probably our biggest challenge," said Harris, in an interview at GMP headquarters this week. "It can be frustrating, but when you consider that your average victim of domestic violence has been assaulted 20 or 30 times before they ever report it, it's not so surprising."

Increasingly, the CPS proceeds to trial without the co-operation of the victims, aided by "bodycams" worn by police officers who attend the scene, which record the state of the home and the victim just after the attack.

The Czech chef's girlfriend was captured on such a camera on Sunday night, crying as she showed officers her injuries. "For a jury to see how fearful a woman is, perhaps she's even bleeding, can have a big impact," said Harris.

Out on patrol in Manchester in the early hours of Tuesday, DC John Armitage said he could not understand why so many of the victims he met not only refused to support prosecutions in the most wretched circumstances, but remained with their abusers. "Even in 10 years doing this job, I can't put my finger on it why people go back," he said.

"I can only put it down to vulnerability. Often people are depressed, they suffer from anxiety. They don't want to be on their own. They often allow it to go on because they don't know any different. Many women we meet have been abused by previous partners, too."

His colleague Martin Riley, another DC, chipped in: "Love's a funny thing, isn't it?"