In 2024, consumers in the United States expected to spend over one thousand U.S. dollars on holiday gifts on average. This is the first time the projected spending estimate reached that one thousand-dollar-mark. Holiday shopping The Christmas, or holiday season, is the single most critical sales period of the year for many retailers: this period includes days, such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and an increasing amount of Americans also shop online during this busy time. An incredible shopping hubbub is produced during this period, with a staggering 95 percent of U.S. consumers having said they intended to buy something during the Christmas season in 2024. Gift cards and vouchers Christmas is a public holiday in the United States and is celebrated on December 25th each year. It is known as a big economic stimulus for many people to purchase Christmas gifts for their beloved family and friends. After Christmas and New Year’s Eve, retail sales often peak again in January as many people redeem their received Christmas gift cards and vouchers. In fact, over half of U.S. consumers planned to buy gift cards or gift certificates for others. It is a popular gifting option, with many Americans indicating that it can be very convenient.

The Covid Winter Grant (CWG) was a fund provided by the Department for Work and Pensions and administered by local authorities in England.The purpose of the grant was to support those households which had been economically affected by the COVID pandemic and sought to provide immediate short term relief in the form of awards to these people.The criteria for allocation of funds was dictated by the DWP and awards could be given to support the provision of food, payments of energy and water bills and other essential items required during the winter period.The scheme ran from the 1st December 2020 through to 31st March 2021.The data provided in this set highlights how Leicester City Council distributed the grant received showing the number of awards made, number of rejections and spend under the DWP categories.This grant was also used to directly fund the provision of Free School Meals during the school holidays (Christmas break and February half term break) and this is highlighted in the dataset under "Direct Awards".The dataset also shows a map detailing how the fund was distributed across the wards of Leicester and there is also a supporting data set named "COVID Winter Grant Ward Data" which also provides this more granular information.

This statistic shows the results of a survey conducted in the United Kingdom in October to November 2024. UK consumers were asked what kind of Christmas gift they would be happy about. During the survey, 41 percent of the respondents said that they would be happy to get clothing, textiles, shoes, making it the most desired Christmas gift by UK consumers.