One in five will spend ‘significantly less’ on Christmas this year
New research (1) from building society The Nottingham reveals that 19% of people expect to spend ‘significantly’ less this Christmas than last year, with a further 28% anticipating they will spend slightly less. Just 4% of people expect to spend more, and 43% anticipate their expenditure will be the same.
The Nottingham’s research found that as a result of the current crisis, 62% of people say this Christmas they will focus more on the people they love as opposed to buying presents than in previous years, and six out of ten (60%) believe there will be a bigger focus on the true meaning of the festive season.
Of those people planning to spend less, the building society estimates by applying its calculations to the UK’s entire population of 52 million adults, over £4 billion could be saved on what people spent compared to Christmas 2019.
In terms of the value of spending people expect to do in shops this Christmas compared to last year, 49% say it will fall, and just 5% expect to spend more. Some 45% anticipate their expenditure in shops to fall by over 10%, and 14% say it will be more than 50% less.
In contrast to this, 54% of people expect to spend more online this Christmas than last year, with 43% anticipating a rise of over 10%, and 14% expecting to spend over 50% more.
Current crisis
Of those people who expect to spend less, 48% say it’s because it doesn’t feel appropriate to spend too much this year given the current crisis. Some 34% say it will be because of restrictions around how many people you can invite to your home, and 18% say it’s a result of having less money due to providing more financial support to loved ones. Some 12% say it’s because they have been furloughed and have less money, and a further 7% say it’s due to being made redundant and the impact this has had on their income.
Overall, 32% of people anticipate they will spend less on food this Christmas when compared to last year, whilst 53% think their expenditure will be the same, and 7% expect to spend more (the remainder don’t know). The corresponding figures for what people expect to spend on presents when compared to Christmas last year are 38%, 6% and 49% respectively (the remainder don’t know).
Ben Osgood, Senior Manager at The Nottingham, commented: “People’s finances have been impacted by the Coronavirus crisis, and this coupled with the restrictions on meeting people and going out, means many will spend less on celebrating this year’s festive season than they did last year.
“However, our research shows that this year, people will place a much bigger focus on the true meaning of Christmas in terms of focusing on the people they care about as opposed to how much they spend on presents.”
