How Much Do Americans Spend On Christmas? (Latest Data)

Americans spend a lot of money over the holidays.

In fact, annual holiday shopping budgets appear to be on the rise. But how much do Americans spend on Christmas each year?

In this article, we'll do a deep dive into the latest data, covering each of these subcategories:

• Key American Christmas Spending Stats
• Average Christmas Spending Over Time
• US Christmas Retail Spending
• US Christmas Experience Spending
• US Christmas Spend By Generation
• Holiday Gift Type Preferences
• US Holiday Shopping Preferences

Key American Christmas Spending Stats

The headline from 2025 is that retail sales grew 3.9% year-over-year during the latest holiday season. (That excludes automotive sales, to give a better reflection of spending that is holiday-related.)

Apparel was a particularly strong growth vertical, with sales up 7.8%. Restaurant spending and jewelry also saw notable rises.

And E-commerce growth streaked ahead of physical commerce. Online sales rose 7.4%, compared to 2.9% for in-store purchases.

Here are some highlights:

1. Americans spent $972 billion during the 2025 holiday season, with the average shopper planning to spend $890.
2. Over 70% of US holiday budgets go toward gifts.
3. US holiday sales have grown year-over-year since 2009.
4. 95% of Americans buy gifts for their families.
5. Deloitte estimates that Americans will spend $666 in 2026 on holiday experiences like events and travel.
6. Men plan to spend 45% more than women on holiday gifts for themselves.
7. Gen Z and Millennials are expected to account for 50% of 2026 holiday spending for the first time.
8. Gift cards are the most popular present to receive.
9. 42% of Americans begin Christmas shopping before November.
10. More Americans shopped online than in-store over Thanksgiving weekend in 2025, with 134.9 million online shoppers compared with 129.5 million in-store.

Average Christmas Spending Data

Christmas is a major expenditure for many Americans. According to the latest data from the National Retail Federation (NRF), Americans planned to spend an average of $890 last Christmas.

Here’s how that $890 was spent:

Purchase Type	Average Planned Spend (2025)	Percentage of Total Spend
Gifts for Family, Friends, and Coworkers	$628	70.5%
Other Seasonal Items	$262	29.5%
Total	$890	-

The data shows that over two-thirds of the average American’s holiday budget goes toward gifts. The rest is spent on decorations and non-gift purchases (ie, travel expenses).

US Christmas Retail Spending Over Time

The NRF reports that US holiday season retail sales have increased year-over-year since 2009.

2025's holiday season sales totaled approximately $994.1 billion. That’s more than double 2004’s figure of $467.2 billion.

Here’s a more detailed look at US holiday sales over time:

Year	Sales	Sales Change Over Previous Year	Percentage Change Over Previous Year
2002	$416.4 billion	-	↑ 2.1%
2003	$437.6 billion	↑ $21.2 billion	↑ 5.1%
2004	$467.2 billion	↑ $29.6 billion	↑ 6.8%
2005	$496 billion	↑ $28.8 billion	↑ 6.2%
2006	$512.1 billion	↑ $16.1 billion	↑ 3.2%
2007	$526 billion	↑ $13.9 billion	↑ 2.7%
2008	$501.5 billion	↓ $24.5 billion	↓ 4.7%
2009	$502.7 billion	↑ $1.2 billion	↑ 0.2%
2010	$528.8 billion	↑ $26.1 billion	↑ 5.2%
2011	$553.3 billion	↑ $24.5 billion	↑ 4.6%
2012	$557.6 billion	↑ $4.3 billion	↑ 2.6%
2013	$583.5 billion	↑ $25.9 billion	↑ 2.8%
2014	$611.5 billion	↑ $28 billion	↑ 4.8%
2015	$628.2 billion	↑ $16.7 billion	↑ 2.7%
2016	$646.7 billion	↑ $18.5 billion	↑ 3.0%
2017	$679.2 billion	↑ $32.5 billion	↑ 5.0%
2018	$691.5 billion	↑ $12.3 billion	↑ 1.8%
2019	$716.7 billion	↑ $25.3 billion	↑ 3.6%
2020	$783.4 billion	↑ $64.4 billion	↑ 9.3%
2021	$889.3 billion	↑ $112 billion	↑ 13.5%
2022	$936.3 billion	↑ $47 billion	↑ 5.3%
2023	$964.4 billion	↑ $28.1 billion	↑ 3.8%
2024	$994.1 billion	↑ $29.7 billion	↑ 3.1%
2025	$972 billion*	-	↑ 3.9%

*NRF reported 2025 holiday sales of $972 billion, up 3.1% from 2024. NRF has since revised its 2024 total downward, so the 2025 figure isn’t directly comparable to the 2024 row above.

As for who Americans are buying gifts for, families still get the biggest share of holiday gift budgets. Among shoppers buying for family, the average planned spend was $496.70 in 2025. That's about 4x what shoppers planned to spend on friends, coworkers, or others.

Here's a breakdown of average holiday spending over the last couple of years by gift recipient:

Year	Gifts for Family		Gifts for Friends		Gifts for Coworkers		Other Gifts
	Spend	Change	Spend	Change	Spend	Change	Spend	Change
2024	$405	-	$116.74	-	$92.21	-	$84.24	-
2025	$496.70	↑ $44.49	$121.50	↑ $4.75	$102.27	↑ $10.06	$92.39	↑ $8.15

And here’s a look at what percentage of Americans bought for those recipients during the same period:

Year	Gifts for Family		Gifts for Friends		Gifts for Coworkers		Other Gifts
	%	Change	%	Change	%	Change	%	Change
2024	95.4%	-	68.5%	-	33.3%	-	42.1%	-
2025	94.7%	↓ 0.7%	68.3%	↓ 0.2%	33.6%	↑ 0.3%	43.3%	↑ 1.2%

Americans also tend to scale back their gift budgets as the holidays get closer. Gallup asks consumers how much they plan to spend on gifts twice each season, once in October and again in November. Shoppers trimmed their estimate by more than $40 between the two readings in 11 of the 19 years where Gallup has both.

That pullback hit a record in 2025. In October, Americans expected to spend an average of $1,007 on gifts. By November, that figure had fallen to $778, a $229 drop. That’s the biggest midseason decline Gallup has recorded, larger even than the $185 drop during the 2008 financial crisis.

The cut was sharpest among lower-income households. Americans earning under $50,000 lowered their planned gift spending from $651 in October to $384 in November.

Even so, the lowest November estimates of the 21st century still came in 2008 ($616) and 2009 ($638).

Here’s a closer look at the gift spending figures:

Year	Planned Gift Spending (October)	Planned Gift Spending (December)	Change
2006	$826	$907	↑ $81
2007	$866	$909	↓ $43
2008	$616	$801	↑ $185
2009	$638	$740	↓ $102
2010	$714	$715	↓ $110
2011	$764	$712	↑ $52
2012	-	$770
2013	$704	$786	↓ $82
2014	$720	$781	↓ $61
2015	$830	$812	↑ $18
2016	$752	$796	↓ $33
2017	$862	$826	↓ $44
2018	$794	$853	↓ $91
2019	$846	$886	↓ $96
2020	$852	$880	↑ $47
2021	$886	$879	↑ $49
2022	$867	$833	↓ $65
2023	$975	$875	↑ $52
2024	$1,012	$902	↓ $2
2025	$1,007	$778	↓ $229

Source: Gallup

US Christmas Experience Spending Over Time

Christmas spending isn’t limited to what ends up under the tree. Deloitte splits holiday budgets into two buckets. Retail goods cover gifts plus non-gift items like clothing and holiday décor. Holiday activities cover travel, events, and entertaining at home.

Year	Retail Goods		Holiday Activities		Total
	Spend	Change	Spend	Change	Spend	Change
2019	$900	-	$596	-	$1,496	-
2020	$922	↑ 2.4%	$465	↓ 22%	$1,387	↓ 7.3%
2021	$926	↑ 0.9%	$536	↑ 15.3%	$1,463	↑ 5.5%
2022	$880	↓ 5%	$576	↑ 7.5%	$1,455	↓ 0.5%
2023	$1,020	↑ 15.9%	$632	↑ 9.7%	$1,652	↑ 13.5%
2024	$1,043	↑ 2.3%	$735	↑ 16.3%	$1,778	↑ 7.6%
2025	$902	↓ 13.5%	$694	↓ 5.6%	$1,597	↓ 10.3%
2026	$988	↑ 9.5%	$666	↓ 4%	$1,654	↑ 3.7%

Since 2019, total planned holiday spending has risen from $1,496 to $1,654, an increase of $158.

Source: Deloitte

US Christmas Spend by Generation

Millennials are the biggest holiday spenders in 2026. The average Millennial household plans to spend $2,087, followed by Gen X at $1,832.

Gen Z is the fastest-growing group by far. After pulling back in 2025, Gen Z shoppers plan to spend $1,282 this year, up 51%. Together, Gen Z and Millennials are expected to account for 50% of holiday spending for the first time.

Older shoppers are moving in the other direction. Gen X plans to spend 7.5% less than last year, and Baby Boomers 16.2% less.

Generation	Average Spend (2025)	Average Spend (2026)	Change
Gen Z (18-29)	$850	$1,282	↑ 50.8%
Millennials (30-45)	$1,777	$2,087	↑ 17.4%
Gen X (46-61)	$1,980	$1,832	↓ 7.5%
Baby Boomers (62-80)	$1,615	$1,353	↓ 16.2%

US Christmas Spend by Region

Where Americans live also shapes their holiday budgets. Shoppers in the Northeast planned to spend the most in 2025, at $1,716 per person. The West followed closely at $1,683, while the Midwest had the smallest budgets at $1,325. The national average was $1,552.

That’s a gap of nearly $400 between the Northeast and the Midwest, much wider than the roughly $100 spread in earlier years.

The Northeast was also the only region planning to spend more than the year before, with budgets up 2%. Planned spending fell 4% in both the South and the Midwest, and 16% in the West.

Source: PwC via Axios

Holiday Gift Preferences

Christmas Gift Preference by Gender

On average, US men and women have significant differences in Christmas gift preferences.

Despite this, gift cards ranked first as the preferred type of Christmas gift for both men and women. And clothing & accessories were second for both, too.

Here’s a breakdown of how popular each type of gift is for both men and women in the US:

Gift Type	Rank (Men)	Popularity (Men)	Rank (Women)	Popularity (Women)	Difference
Gift cards	1	48%	1	64%	16% (W)
Clothing & accessories	2	44%	2	50%	6% (W)
Books & other media	=3	33%	3	32%	1% (M)
Electronics & accessories	=3	33%	7	20%	13% (M)
Sporting goods	5	23%	9	10%	13% (M)
Home improvement items	6	19%	8	14%	5% (M)
Home decor & furnishings	7	15%	4	31%	16% (W)
Jewelry	8	12%	6	28%	16% (W)
Personal care & beauty	9	10%	5	30%	20% (W)
Other	10	7%	10	7%	0%

Christmas Gift Preference by Age

Age also appears to significantly affect Christmas gift preferences in the US.

On average, more young adults want clothing & accessories. The percentage of people who would like clothes decreases at a fairly consistent rate from 65% in the 18-24 years category to 30% in the 65+.

This is also the case with books & other media, decreasing with each advancing age category from 43% to 25%.

In fact, this trend can be seen across 5 of 10 categories. Electronics & accessories drop from 38% to 12%. Home decor & furnishings fall from 33% to 10%. And jewelry drops from 32% to 12%.

A preference for sporting goods remains fairly stable (between 22% and 23%) for the youngest three age categories (18 to 24, 25 to 34, 35 to 44). However, it drops thereafter, falling to 8% for the 65+ category.

Home improvement items have a stable preference across the board at 14% to 22% for under 64s.

The final two categories each see increasing desire with age.

Gift cards rise with each age group, from 25 to 34-year-olds at 49% to 65+ at 63%. And the other category has its highest three percentages in ascending order of the oldest three age groups, peaking at 14%.

Christmas Gift Preference by Region

In terms of demographics, US regions appear to have the least influence over gift preference.

Only one gift category has a difference in gift preference greater than 5% – gift cards. 61% of the Midwest would like to receive a gift card compared to 54% of people living in the West.

The average percentage of Americans who said they would like a gift from any given category is as follows:

• Midwest – 27.3%
• South – 26.6%
• West – 26.5%
• Northeast – 26%

Source: National Retail Federation

US Holiday Shopping Preferences

As of 2025, holiday spending was down in all eight retail categories.

Here's a look at how each retail category changed between 2024 and 2025:

Gift Category	2024 Spending	2025 Spending	Difference
Clothing and accessories	$279	$240	↓ 14%
Food and beverage	$238	$198	↓ 16.8%
Electronics and accessories	$265	$211	↓ 20.4%
Toys and hobbies	$202	$195	↓ 3.5%
Gift cards	$263	$241	↓ 8.4%
Health and wellness	$203	$164	↓ 19.2%
Home and kitchen	$194	$149	↓ 23.2%

Many Americans get a head start on holiday shopping. 42% of shoppers plan to begin browsing and buying before November, and 16% start in September or earlier.

Here's a breakdown of when Americans start their holiday shopping:

When Shopping Starts	Share of Shoppers
Before September	8.4%
September	7.9%
October	25.6%
November	42.2%
First two weeks of December	13.2%
Last two weeks of December	2.7%

Where and how US consumers shop also varies considerably.

Smartphones now dominate online holiday shopping. 56.4% of online holiday sales happened on a smartphone in 2025, up from 54.5% in 2024. On Christmas Day, mobile’s share climbed to 66.5%.

AI is also becoming part of the holiday shopping journey, especially for younger shoppers. 39% of shoppers say generative AI is their main tool for at least one holiday shopping task, such as finding gift ideas, comparing prices, or discovering deals.

Here’s how that breaks down by generation:

Generation	Use Gen AI to Shop
Gen Z	49%
Millennials	50%
Gen X	35%
Baby Boomers	23%
Average	39%

Social media has become an increasingly important part of festive shopping, particularly for younger generations.

Around 3 in 5 shoppers (59%) planned to use social media for holiday shopping in 2025. Those shoppers planned to spend 25% more than others, and 3 in 10 had bought something directly on social media in the past six months.

Here’s how social media usage for Christmas shopping varies between generations:

Generation	Planned to use social media for holiday shopping
Gen Z	74%
Millennials	67%
Gen X	53%
Baby Boomers	48%
Average	59%

In total, 64% of Americans agree that sales or price discounts are important when Christmas shopping.

More than half of US citizens also think that the quality of merchandise (58%) and the selection of merchandise (57%) are important.

Layaway services are deemed the least important (4%) aspect of holiday shopping.

These are the full results of the 2021 survey:

Rank	Aspect of Shopping	Percentage Who Agree Aspect is Important
1	Sales or price discount	64%
2	Quality of merchandise	58%
3	Selection of merchandise	57%
4	Free shipping/shipping promotions	47%
5	Convenient location	41%
6	Everyday low prices	40%
7	Easy-to-use website or mobile site	33%
8	No hassle return policy	29%
9	Helpful, knowledgeable customer service	24%
10	Layaway services	4%
11	Other	1%

Sources: Deloitte, National Retail Federation

Key Takeaways

The holiday season is evidently an expensive time for the average American. And a lucrative time for business.

Data suggests that spending is likely to continue as long as the global economy remains relatively stable.

If you found our stats on American Christmas spending interesting, give our ​important shopping trends and retail trends a go.