Full Shopping Bags
For all the talk about a tight economy, we Americans are apparently looking forward to dumping some cash on holiday gifts again this year.
Gallup conducted its first survey of 2025 holiday spending during the first part of this month, and it looks like Americans plan to spend an average of $1,007 on gifts this season. That’s nearly identical to last year’s historic high of $1,014, and still well above the $923 level from 2023.
Interesting to note that these same polls over time have shown that Americans are less religious than in decades past…but happy to literally buy into the commercial aspects of Christmas and related dates on the calendar.
At least 86 percent of us plan to buy gifts this year…with 37 percent saying they’ll spend more than $1,000 and roughly the same amount, 31 percent, only spending less than $500.
A majority of us who will be buying gifts plan to spend about the same as last year…close to historic trends.
It does seem, however, that those earning less than $100,000 per year plan to spend less this year…while those earning the higher amount plan to spend more. That’s a trend worth watching to see if it becomes a regular split between those of different earning levels.
Obviously, a survey like this does not measure whether folks are planning to spend more because of inflation or higher prices, or because they are buying more stuff. Regardless, consumer confidence must be fairly good, or we’d be back with the declining numbers from more troubled, recessionary times.
