This Is How Much the Average American Will Spend on Christmas This Year

The average American will spend $633 on Christmas this year, according to a new poll by LendEDU, an online marketplace for financial products. That’s enough money to buy two 43-inch televisions, an Alaskan cruise, or roughly 250 tacos.

For LendEDU’s poll, 1000 adults who celebrate Christmas were asked how much they expect to spend this year on decorations, gifts, travel, and other holiday-related expenses. Unsurprisingly, your dearest friends and family place the greatest strain on your wallet, with gifts accounting for 54 percent of overall spending, or around $342. Travel is the second-largest expense, accounting for $133 of the total budget. Other holiday expenses cost $89, while decorations are expected to set the average family back $70.

While this may seem like a lot of money to throw away on a holiday, it represents a $75 drop in spending from last Christmas, according to LendEDU’s figures. Still, 22 percent of poll respondents said they expect to go into debt as a result of their Christmas spending. On average, those Americans said they anticipate being $554 in the red this year.

One of the more surprising findings is that families are still doing much of their Christmas shopping in brick and mortar outlets. Of the poll respondents, 51 percent said they planned to buy most of their gifts at a store, while 46 percent said they would do their shopping online. Two percent said they were making their own presents, while one percent still relied on good old-fashioned catalogs.

There are ways to cut back on Christmas spending, but it will require some careful deliberations. If you still need to do some last-minute shopping but don’t want to break the bank this Christmas, check out these 11 gifts that cost $10-$25.