Christmas Shopping Sales Dip Nationwide Versus Last Year

By Talbert Toole
Lifestyles Editor
talbert.toole@hottytoddy.com

Photo vis Pixabay.

The Holiday season is the strongest sales period of the year for retailers, according to Statista.com—a leading provider of market and consumer data. This year, consumers expected to spend approximately $794 on Christmas gifts, the website’s report stated.

That average is a dip from last year where consumers spent approximately $862.

The report drew its conclusions of holiday finances from estimated Christmas spending of U.S. consumers from 1999-2018.

According to the report, sales begin to increase in the holiday season on Thanksgiving weekend with Black Friday. Black Friday leads the sales and traffic into the whole season, which continues to the end of January.

In addition to consumers spending approximately $100 less than last year on gifts, Christmas tree sales could also be plummeting this year due to a shortage of trees across the country, according to the USA Today.

Tree farmers planted fewer trees after the 2008 Great Recession due to low purchases among consumers, the USA Today reported. However, the shortage this year could be due to the fact that trees typically need seven to 10 years to grow and be mature, according to Bell’s Christmas Trees of New York.

According to an additional report by Statista using figures from the National Christmas Tree Association, before the Great Recession consumers bought approximately 17.4 million trees in 2007, real and artificial.

After the recession, sales dropped to 11.7 million trees. However, sales rose in 2016 and 2017 to 18.6 million and 21.1 million, respectively. 

Chal Landgren, Oregon State University Christmas tree extension specialist, said tree growers in the state have produced about the same amount of trees as last year, about 5.2 million.

Landgren said this production amount is approximately the right amount for consumer purchases.

For more information on Christmas sales and statistics, visit Statista.com.