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The £50 Billion Spend-Up this Christmas

Vicky Parry 20th Dec 2021 No Comments

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Christmas spending habits have been the focus of this new study by Capital One UK. It has been revealed that £50 billion may be spent on Christmas this year. This comes out to nearly £1,000 each on average, which is nearly half (48%) of December’s take-home salary. Only a week after news that we will spend up to four months repaying debts acrewed at Christmas: we take a look into what the study found.

Following on from a very odd and dour Christmas 2020 (thanks Covid) people are hoping to make up for it this year and saying they want to make it “extra special” by planning to increase spending by a third. This however isn’t always needed. We have many great articles to show you how to infact save on this spending.

However it will be interesting to see in the new year if these predictions came true. MoneyMagpie’s Jasmine Birtles says “Every year we hear that people spent more on Christmas than they did last year. This year seems different though. I’ve heard predictions that people will spend less than last year because they are rightly concerned about price rises in 2022. So it’s a wait-and-see game this Christmas to find out whose predictions were right!

Christmas Spending Habits

Average spending will be nearly half (48%) December’s take-home salary
Almost a third (30%) will spend more compared with last year’s COVID-affected Christmas
Londoners will spend the most on Christmas compared with the rest of the UK

Gifts (£304), food (£136), and clothes (£127) are the three biggest spending areas, with people buying gifts for nine others on average. However, a quarter (25%) plan to buy between 11 and 20 people. In total, Brits will spend over £300 on gifts, working out at around £33 per present.

Jasmine feels that this needn’t be the case and that “we need to watch our spending at Christmas in any year, but particularly this year. Prices are predicted to rise in the New Year and January is a long month anyway, so the last thing we all need is to start 2022 with Christmas debt!”

Regional findings

The South West saw the greatest number of people who believe Christmas is over commercialised (82%), has a negative impact on their mental health (27%), and said that they wouldn’t want it to be Christmas every day (75%). The East Midlands finds Christmas shopping the most stressful, and the West Midlands is the most worried about how much Christmas is going to cost. .

This massive spending is of course daunting and unattainable to many. MoneyMagpie’s Jasmine Birtles wanted to reach out to you all and say:

“If you’re struggling with your finances, let your family and friends know. Let them know you love them but that you’re cutting down on spending this year because you’re paying off debts/saving for something/worried about your job etc. It’s likely that they are in the same situation. Send them a card to tell them how great they are and how much they mean to you – that’s often more acceptable than an actual present. Suggest a Secret Santa so that you each only have to buy one present. Get friends and family to bring a dish each for the Christmas dinner. Just keep the cost down for everyone and then you can all sail into 2022 debt-free!”