One in five of us start Christmas shopping by September
The British public are getting into the festive spirit earlier than ever before, new research reveals.
From starting to shop for gifts, listening to festive jingles and putting up decorations, many Brits think that it’s good for the Christmas feeling to last a couple of months, and are actively planning for Christmas as early as four months prior to Christmas Day.
A study conducted by Goldsmiths, the UK’s largest luxury jewellers, has delved into the British public’s perceptions of planning for Christmas, including overall festive sprit in the lead up to the day, and buying behaviour.
The research revealed that one in 20 of us shop all year round with Christmas in mind. While one in five of us start Christmas shopping as early as up to four months prior to Christmas Day, 28 per cent of us are more traditional and still wait until December before buying any presents.
Overall, women were found to be more organised than men. Women’s average start date to begin gift shopping was found to be a month earlier than their male counterparts – the second half of October from women, compared to the second half of November for men.
It seems that we also love a good sing-along to some Christmas classics – one in 20 think September is fine for Christmas music, and 1 in 50 of us believe as early as August is acceptable for a bit of “Jingle Bells”. However, like starting to shop for presents, the average Brit agreed that December was the prime time to start playing Christmas songs and putting up decorations to get into the festive spirit.
Scrooge was definitely a man – 28 per cent of men believe we should wait until just the fortnight before Christmas before playing music, and as we get older we also seem to become less tolerant of the music. The large majority of those aged over 55 believed that we shouldn’t play Christmas tunes until we are well into the month of December.
The research also found that:
· 45 per cent of people believe in Christmas in moderation and think that it should be confined to just December, and 16 per cent believe it should just be the one day!
· Some of us are rocking around the Christmas tree and putting up decorations months ahead of time – one in 50 as early as August, and one in 20 doing so in September
· From a city point of view, Birmingham the most festive – more than one in 10 people in Birmingham thought that Christmas music and decorations before October was fine
· Residents in Bristol start their Christmas shopping earliest, with nearly one in five starting their shopping in the first half of the year
· Only 11 per cent of people surveyed said they’d describe their buying style as “last minute”, whereas 31 per cent said they like to shop in December because it gets them in the mood for Christmas
· This Christmas the average Brit is expected to spend £289.32 on gifts, and one in four of us plan to spend over £500 in total
· A thrifty 13 per cent of people admit to making use of Black Friday or similar days to get most of their Christmas gifts, to ensure the best value for money
Craig Bolton, Executive Director at Goldsmiths, commented on the findings:
“It’s great to see that many of the British public are getting into the festive spirit already, with some already well underway with their preparations, including gift shopping, card sending, putting up decorations and music playing.
“While the older generation are typically more traditional (keeping preparations solely for December), it seems that the younger demographic is happy to welcome the idea of Christmas much earlier in the year.
“People are obviously putting a lot of time and effort into making the festive celebrations as special as possible. 13 per cent of us plan to utilise Black Friday or similar days to purchase more expensive items, and another 13 per cent said they shop year-round for Christmas presents to ensure it’s the best possible gift. With less than 100 days to go, we can only expect the festivity levels to increase throughout the country”.
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