With Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle All The Way, we are counting down 10 countries that spend the most on Christmas. When holiday spirit kicks in, people easily spend their hard earned money on anything you can imagine. Most of that spent money goes on Christmas gifts.
Although one would think that any gift is a good gift, that isn’t the case. Maybe those handmade Christmas cards can pass as unique one year, but don’t expect them to do the trick every time. You will have to reach into your pocket and join the spending spree.
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There are some things topping the people’s wishes. A survey done by Deloitte showed that the top choice for Christmas present is a book. Hard to believe, right? The second top choice is money, which doesn’t come as a surprise. Nevertheless, besides being greedy, people can be generous too, which is something 10 countries that spend the most on foreign aid show us the best.
To find out which are the countries that spend the most on Christmas, we consulted a report about planned Christmas spending in 2015 made by ING. The ranking was based on median spend amount per citizen. The amounts in Euros are converted to US Dollars.
10. Czech Republic
Median spend: 163.52$ per person
Money amount spent on Christmas in the Czech Republic may be lower than in some other countries, but you have to take into consideration that the wages in this country are smaller than in the others. When it comes to wage percentage spent on Christmas, Czech Republic is at the top, since on average they spend 24% of their wages during Christmas.
9. Spain
Median spend: 218.03$ per person
There is a little crisis in Spain if we compare data from 2014 with one from 2015. In 2015 Spaniards spent around 70 euros less than in 2014 when they gave away 15% of their wages on Christmas related costs.
8. Italy
Median spend: 218.03$ per person
In Italy, there is a steady trend of spending, since Italians spent roughly the same amount of money in the last three years. According to the report, 8% of people in Italy went to debt year before because of their spending habits.
7. Germany
Median spend: 218.03$ per person
Although wages in Germany are among the highest in Europe, they carefully spend their money on Christmas, around 8% of it. Also, only 12% of them planned to spend more money than in previous years.
6. Australia
Median spend: 218.03$ per person
Yes, they don’t have snow for Christmas, but that doesn’t stop Aussies from enjoying this time of year, and hence being one of 10 countries that spend the most on Christmas. Our guess is that they probably organize a beach party and have palms as Christmas trees.
5. France
Median spend: 272.53$ per person
Interesting thing is that 10% of people in France went in debt in 2014 because of their Christmas spending. Surely they are getting more cautious, since they intended to spend around 75$ less in 2015 than they did in 2014.
4. Austria
Median spend: 272.53$ per person
In Austria, like in Italy, people stick to their budget and roughly spend the same amount of money every year. That kind of planning caused that only 4% of Austrians went to debt in 2014 because of Christmas.
3. Luxembourg
Median spend: 327.04$ per person
In 2014, people in Luxembourg spent around 320$ per person on Christmas, while their average wage was around 3,986 $. The fact that they had a quite bigger average wage of 4,455$ in 2015 didn’t disrupt their plans, since they planned to spend roughly the same amount.
2. USA
Median spend: 392.45$ per person
We know you expected the USA to be in the first place because all the hype, Christmas movies, and decorations fight. But, the truth is slightly different, although Americans are trying really hard to top all the other countries. The proof for that is that 27% of them planned to spend more money in 2015 than in 2014, a year in which Christmas brought a debt for 20% of them.
1. United Kingdom
Median spend: 457.85$ per person
If you didn’t, watch Love Actually and you will see that the Christmas spirit is huge in UK and why are they on the top of 10 countries that spend the most on christmas. People travel, spend their money on fancy clothes, food and most important, gifts. The thing is, they are doing it every year, and they are usually on the top, spending more than anyone else. Of course, 2015 was bad for the Britons too, and most of them planned to spend 30$ less, than in 2014 when the figure stood close to 500$.
