The holiday season is right around the corner, and while 77% of American adults say they’ll be buying gifts this holiday season, about a third (34%) say they’ll be toning down how much they’re spending in 2023.
Who is buying gifts?
Women are far more likely to be shopping for gifts this holiday season, with 84% of women saying they’ll be buying Christmas presents compared to just 69% of men.
Gen Y (81%) and gen Z (80%) are the generations most likely to be in the giving spirit, while only 67% of baby boomers will be handing out presents on Christmas day.
Both the East North Central region (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin) and West South Central region (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas) are home to the most generous gift-givers, with 80% planning to shop for gifts in 2023.
The majority of Americans, a combined 57%, will be buying 5 or fewer gifts in the 2023 holiday season. However, 1 in 10 say they will be buying Christmas gifts for 11 or more people in 2023.
While men may be planning on giving fewer gifts this Christmas, they are planning to spend more, with 50% saying they will be spending $50 or more on presents, compared to only 37% of women who say their holiday spending will exceed $50.
Baby boomers (48%) are the generation most likely to be buying Christmas gifts worth $50 or more, while 4% of gen Z say they’re shopping for gifts worth less than $10.
One in three say their holiday spending habits have changed
A combined 34% say they will be spending less on Christmas in 2023 than in previous years, with 21% saying they plan to spend a little less and 13% saying they’re spending a lot less.
Christmas budgets are being tightened the most in the East South Central region (Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee), where 42% say they’re spending less on average than they did for Christmas in 2022.
Over three in five (63%) of those cutting back on gift giving in 2023 say they’re doing so due to inflation, with a little over half blaming a tighter budget.
How are most Americans paying for their Christmas gifts?
The holiday period in 2023 will come at a price. The cost of a Christmas tree this year is projected to rise by about $87, and an estimated 132 million Americans plan to shop the pre-holiday sales (such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday) in 2023.
Credit card balances are already at their highest level ever, with US consumers currently owning $1.08 trillion. And that number will no doubt increase following the holidays, with a little over half (56%) saying they plan to pay for at least some of their Christmas presents using a credit card.
Finder’s Consumer Confidence Index is an ongoing quarterly nationally representative survey, so far polling more than 10,000 American adults, asking questions relating to household finances. First collected October 4-19, 2022, with following iterations running between January 9-February 17, 2023, April 11-20, 2023, July 6-18, 2023 and most recently, October 11-30, 2023.
Our data is based on an online survey of 2,033 US adults commissioned by Finder and conducted by Qualtrics/SAP from October 11-30, 2023, with representative quotas for gender, age and states.
We assume the 2,033 participants in our survey represent the US population of 260.9 million Americans at least 18 years old, according to the July 2022 US Census Bureau population estimate. This assumption is made at the 95% confidence level with a 2% margin of error.
We define generations by birth year according to the Pew Research Center’s generational guidelines, though we’ve combined baby boomers and the silent generation into a single group for sampling ease:
Gen Z — any adults born post-1997
Gen Y — 1981–1996
Gen X — 1965–1980
Baby boomers — anyone born pre-1964
We define geographical regions as defined by the US Census Bureau.
Richard Laycock is Finder’s NYC-based senior content marketing manager & insights editor, spending the last decade data diving, writing and editing articles about all things personal finance. His musings can be found across the web including on NASDAQ, MoneyMag, Yahoo Finance and Travel Weekly. Richard studied Media at Macquarie University, including a semester abroad at The Missouri School of Journalism (MIZZOU).
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