Holiday Economy

I came across an article that detailed the spending habits of Americans and thought about sharing with you, just in case you were interested.

For the past 10 years (1997 to 2007) holiday retail sales have gone from about $388 Billion in 1997 to $474.5 Billion in 2007.

In 2007, the average consumer planned to spend more that $800 on holiday related shopping and more than $100 on themselves. I thought the breakdown was interesting:

• $469.14 on family
• $94.69 on candy and food
• $90.13 on friends
• $49.76 on decorations
• $37.45 on acquaintances (teachers, clergy, babysitters)
• $32.21 on greeting cards and postage
• $22.79 on co-workers
• $20.53 on flowers

For us, as a family, we have allotted a certain amount of money to gift-giving each year. Our credit union makes saving for the holidays a little easier by allowing us to set up a "holiday fund account" where we can deposit a certain amount of money from each paycheck. In November, we can withdraw that balance and use it for Christmas gifts.

My question to you all: how do you save for Christmas? Do you save a certain amount of money each month in anticipation? Do you hope for a year-end bonus to pay off the debt you incur from using credit cards? Do you not buy Christmas gifts?

More interesting tid-bits:

• The busiest shopping period of the year is between 12/17 and 12/23...not Black Friday or Cyber Monday
• In November and December of 2007, consumers accumulated $12.8 Billion in NEW debt...that's 16% of the total debt accumulated that year...1/3 of the consumers were still paying off the debt from the 2006 holiday season!

Lastly, now that Christmas is upon us I am continually reminding myself that its not about the hustle and bustle of shopping or even spending time with family and friends. There are implicit joys of the holiday season and those should not be lost during all the craziness: Watching my daughter's eyes light up right along with all the Christmas lights and decorations...Her pure excitement of simply shoveling snow with me and building a snowman was awesome...Helping Susan and I wrap gifts and bake cookies. She is my model for pure joy and happiness.

Christmas should not be about how much you can spend or finding just the right gift for someone. Christmas is about Jesus being sent to earth from heaven to bring light to a dark world. It's about our God sending his only Son to save us from His coming wrath for our sins. It's about sharing with co-workers, family and friends the true meaning of why we have this holiday season. To me, it's about the joy of Christ, love of Christ and peace of Christ.

Hope you all have a blessed Christmas...