One in three people in Germany has a smaller budget for Christmas presents this year than last year. And almost one in five people don’t buy any presents at all for the holidays. This is the result of a representative online survey by YouGov for the classifieds portal, which is available to stern in advance.
In the survey, 31 percent said they had less money available for Christmas presents this year than last year. On the other hand, 44 percent have the same amount available and 15 percent even have a higher budget for gifts than in the previous year. The rest did not provide any information.
People in Germany spend very different absolute amounts on Christmas presents: 42 percent of those surveyed plan to spend less than 200 euros in total. 28 percent have set a budget of between 200 and 500 euros for all gifts combined. And 12 percent are particularly generous, spending more than 500 euros – a third of this group even spend more than 1,000 euros. In addition, there are a total of 18 percent who don’t buy any Christmas presents at all – that’s almost one in five people in Germany. However, it was not asked whether this was for financial or other reasons.
However, the question was what people do to save money when buying Christmas presents. Many consumers pay attention to offers, discounts and promotions (32 percent) or have specifically taken advantage of Black Friday bargains (21 percent). However, 23 percent of those surveyed also say that they are simply buying fewer gifts this year. Some rely more on homemade gifts (11 percent) or give away shared activities that don’t cost much (10 percent). Only a few gift buyers opt for second-hand goods (5 percent), buy repaired or refurbished devices (5 percent) or buy B-goods and returned goods (4 percent).
For the online survey, 1,071 people were interviewed between December 13th and 14th. According to YouGov, the survey is representative of the population in Germany aged 18 and over.
