The average cost of Christmas 2016 for Britons was £465, with over half of households not setting a budget for spending during the month of December.
11 percent of respondents polled by YouGov spent over £1,000 over the festive period, with 17 percent of those with children in their household admitting to spending more than £1,000.
The research, commissioned by Lloyds Bank to investigate Christmas spending in Britain, found that over half of the 2,000 respondents didn’t set a budget for Christmas 2016, or only budgeted for part of their spending. Less than a quarter – 22 percent – set a budget for all of their Christmas spending in 2016 and stuck to this, while a further 12 percent set a budget but didn’t stick to it.
To cut down the costs of Christmas, budgeting appears to work. The research found that those who set a Christmas budget spent a little less overall, at an average of £462 this winter, with the total cost of their Christmas actually falling by 3 percent compared to 2015.
For the majority that didn’t make an initial budget, the cost of Christmas rose by 5 percent compared to 2015. When it comes to funding the cost of Christmas, in 2016 just over a quarter (26%) managed to save money in advance for Christmas, while over a fifth (22%) used a credit card and more than one-in-twenty (6%) used their overdraft.
Jon Roberts, managing director of consumer & commercial cards at Lloyds Bank, commented:
“Make no mistake, the cost of Christmas can be hefty, but as a nation we don’t do much to make it easier on ourselves. Our research shows that we fail to budget properly, which leads to unexpected overspending, and we don’t plan for a longer gap between pay cheques in December and January either, both of which can make managing our money trickier in the New Year.”