How is inflation squeezing the spirit out of the holiday season?

The high cost of living has dampened millions of Americans’ holiday cheer this year. According to a recent study conducted by Qualtrics on behalf of Intuit Credit Karma, more than 60% of respondents point to inflation as a significant reason they will be tight on their holiday spending budget.
Around 35% of both millennials and Generation Z say they will have to compromise holiday traditions to save money; more than half noted this is the first year they’ve had to make this severe of a financial sacrifice.
Expenses where consumers predict the most debt:
With one-third of the U.S. population going into the holidays with over $5,000 in debt, “feelings of unrest (can) stem from money worries,” Courtney Alev, consumer financial advocate at Intuit Credit Karma, said. “Our study found that more than a third of Americans (37%) say the cost of the holidays negatively impacts their mental health.”
Nearly 1 in 3 Americans (29%) are so burdened by rising costs that they wish the holidays could be canceled altogether this year.
This 2024 holiday season, Americans are projected to spend an average of $1,014 on gifts, a higher number than in previous years, according to a Gallup report. The poll projected that the amount is likely to increase as many consumers wait till the last minute to buy gifts.
Bill Sartain, who owns the mom-and-pop toy store The Tutoring Toy in Salt Lake City with his wife Diane, said he’s befriended one of his customers over the years who refuses to purchase Christmas gifts until hours before the toy store closes on Christmas Eve.
“I said, ‘Well, jeez, that’s putting a lot of pressure on you, isn’t it?’ He said, ‘You know what, I’m so sick and tired of the commercialization of a religious holiday that I just tune it out. And then, if I wait until the last minute, it brings it out for me. It brings it out as OK, this is a special time.’ And he starts to get excited,” Sartain told the Deseret News.
For some businesses, the holiday season is their golden egg.
“In the toy business, December is where it’s all about,” Sartain said. When it’s not holiday season, “our business is dependent on birthday parties from January through September,” he said. “Well, when the pandemic hit, guess what happened? Nobody had birthday parties.”
“I don’t think we’ve totally recovered,” he said, emphasizing that birthday parties have come back since peak social distancing. Still, during the holiday season, “even in the height of the pandemic, our patterns were pretty much the same.”
“But I think this year we see a little crack in that mentality, and maybe they’re starting to get back to being more traditional.”
When asked about concerns over reports projecting lower consumer spending this holiday season, he emphasized that despite the challenges, he doesn’t feel the need to adopt “predatory” pricing tactics to stay afloat.
“We mark it up to the standard traditional markup, and you know, that keeps us able to pay the bills,” Sartain said.