Christmas spending

Q. And compared to last year, do you expect to be spending more on gifts at Christmas, less or much the same?

11% of people indicated they will spend more on Christmas presents this year than they spent last year, 38% think they will spend less and 47% will spend much the same.

Expectation that more will be spent on Christmas gifts this year decreases with age – 21% of 18 – 24 year olds expect to spend more compared with 5% of those aged 55 years and over.  56% of those aged 55 years and over expect to spend much the same.

People earning $1000 – $1600 per week were slightly more likely than those in other income groups to indicate they will spend more this year on Christmas gifts (14%), while people earning $1600 + per week were more likely to spend much the same as last year.

People’s expectation that they will spend more this year than they spent last has increased eight percentage points since we last asked this question in 2008.