Boys and Girls

Firstly, apologies to Patrick to beating him to the first Christmas blog! He is already sneakily listening to Christmas tunes, and reviewing Christmas jumper options – that is how obsessed the boy is!

Back to the real news, despite three quarters of us believing that the country is still in recession, we plan to spend an average of 40% more at Christmas than our European counterparts (albeit at slightly lower levels than last year).

We plan to spend €943 per household on Christmas (55% on gifts, 27% on food and 17% on socialising).

If you want to have a frugal Christmas, head to the Netherlands, where (with their stronger economy) they plan to spend a miserly €260 in 2011. Maybe there is a lesson for our Celtic impulsiveness in this fact.

The interesting thing is what we want, the second and third most popular gift choices are cash and vouchers, and the cheaper choices are at the top of the list, with high priced items being a choice for only a few – showing how well we have adapted to leaner times.

So if you want to buy your friends and family typical presents, this is how the list reads

1. Books
2. Cash
3. Gift vouchers
4. Clothes
5. Jewellery
6. CDs
7. Cosmetics
8. Laptop/PC computer
9. Beauty care
10. DVD/Blu Ray