Report reveals costs of Christmas spending

A report from Halifax Credit Cards has revealed that the average British consumer now spends around £384 on Christmas gifts.

Many thousands of people add to their debt management problems by overstretching themselves over the festive period and the recent study shows that one in 20 consumers spend as much as £1,000 on gifts at this time of year.

Those aged between 35 and 44 are the most generous in this regard, spending on average a total of around £570 on Christmas gifts, Halifax Credit Cards reports.

“Although many of us budget and plan for Christmas, spending days trying to find the right gift, many of us fail to plan how we pay for purchases and could be paying too much,” a statement form the financial services firm made clear.

More than a million people from England and Wales approached Citizens Advice about debt accumulated over Christmas during January of this year, the charity’s own figures reveal.