Expected holiday spending holds steady at $752 per person, Gallup says

PRINCETON, N.J., Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Americans can expect to spend an average of $752 each on Christmas gifts this year, a Gallup Inc. poll released Wednesday said.

The figure is in line with the combined average for the past seven years but down from the $830 spending estimate last year. Since 2010, the first full year after the economic recession, the spending estimate revealed each November has varied little, averaging $751.

The poll said 30 percent of U.S. adults intend to spend $1,000 or more on Christmas gifts, and 23 percent expect to spend less than $250. Nine percent say they do not celebrate the holidays and expect to spend nothing; when that group is excluded from the calculation, the average amount gift purchasers plan to spend increases to $831.

Gallup commented that, since the poll was taken immediately after the November elections, a time of increased confidence in the economy, the enthusiasm has not involved plans to spend more on holiday gifts.

The survey was based on telephone interviews conducted Nov. 9 to Nov. 13, with a random sample of 1,019 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The margin of sampling error is plus-or-minus four percentage points, at the 95 percent confidence level. The margin of sampling error for the spending mean is plus or minus $72, at the 95 percent confidence level. Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 60 percent cellphone respondents and 40 percent landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers were selected using random-digit-dial methods.