Gift Spending Statistics (2026)
Updated August 14, 2026
How much do people actually spend on gifts — and on what? Below are 23 current statistics on gift spending, gift cards, timing, returns, self-gifting, and holiday debt, each pulled from a named industry survey (NRF, Deloitte, Gallup, YouGov, LendingTree, Empower, PwC, HDE) and dated so you can see exactly how current it is. Every claim links straight to its source.
Key takeaways
37% of Americans took on debt to cover 2025 holiday spending, averaging $1,223 in new debt — the highest amount since 2022.
Mother's Day 2026 hit a record $284.25 spent per person — up from $259.04 just one year earlier.
Nearly 1 in 5 online holiday orders (19.3%) comes back as a return.
Overall holiday spending (US)
These three totals differ because each survey asks a different question — NRF separates gifts from seasonal items, Gallup asks about gifts only, and Deloitte's figure includes travel and entertainment. All three are legitimate; they simply aren't measuring the same thing.
The average US shopper planned to spend $890.49 on 2025 winter-holiday gifts and seasonal items — $627.93 of it on gifts for family and friends, the rest ($262.56) on food, decorations, and cards.
91% of Americans planned to celebrate the winter holidays in 2025.
Gallup put the number higher: Americans expected to lay out $1,007 on gifts for the 2025 season, essentially flat versus $1,014 in 2024.
Deloitte's broader measure — gifts plus travel and entertainment — put planned holiday spending at $1,595 per shopper for 2025, down 10% year-over-year.
Spending by occasion (US)
Valentine's Day 2026 spending hit a record $199.78 per person, part of a record $29.1 billion total.
Mother's Day 2026 spending set a record at $284.25 per person — a $38 billion holiday.
Father's Day 2026 spending reached a record $226.58 per person, up from $199.38 in 2025.
The average adult birthday gift costs $55.65; the average gift for a child's birthday runs higher, at $83.03.
The average wedding gift comes in at $85.18.
The average single Christmas gift — per person given to, not per household — runs $64.10.
Gift cards
Timing: early birds vs. last-minute
42% of holiday shoppers started buying before November.
Even so, 60% of shoppers still planned to finish their holiday shopping in December.
Only 4% of Americans wait until Christmas Eve or later to do their shopping.
Self-gifting
24% of Americans shopped for themselves or their household while doing their holiday shopping.
Returns
Retailers expect 15.8% of all 2025 retail sales — $849.9 billion worth of merchandise — to come back as returns.
Holiday-season returns run slightly higher than the yearly average: 17% of holiday sales are expected to be returned.
Online orders get returned far more than in-store purchases — 19.3% of online sales bounce back.
Debt & financial stress
37% of Americans took on debt to cover 2025 holiday spending, averaging $1,223 in new debt — the highest amount since 2022.
45% of shoppers said they planned to give fewer gifts in 2025 specifically because of tariffs.
Outside the US
The average UK adult planned to spend £461 on Christmas gifts in 2025, part of a £24.6 billion national total (up 3.5% year-over-year).
The average German shopper planned to spend €263 on Christmas gifts in 2025 — €34 less than the year before.
Methodology
This page compiles publicly available statistics from named industry sources — we don't run our own consumer surveys. Every figure above links directly to the press release, research page, or news article it came from, with the source name and year shown next to the claim. Compiled and fact-checked August 14, 2026. Surveys use different methodologies and sample questions, so figures from different sources are not always directly comparable — where that matters, we've said so inline. If a source updates or retracts a figure, or you spot an error, let us know and we'll fix it.