Average Christmas Spending in the UK

NimbleFins analysed retail spending data going back 30 years to learn about how much households spend at Christmas. Here's what we found.

• Average Christmas Spending
  • 2023
  • 2024
• Historical Christmas Spending
• Christmas Spending by Region
• Data & Methodology

Average Christmas Spending

NimbleFins has analysed official Office for National Statistics (ONS) retail spending data to estimate the amount spent at Christmas by a typical UK household—both for 30 years through 2023 and an estimate for 2024.

Our team forecasts that for 2024, the estimated average amount spent by a household at Christmas will be £719. But as you can read about below, this could be as high as £855—and varies by region.

Last year, in 2023, NimbleFins calculated that households spent an average of £709. The highest spend was during Covid, with £915 spent in 2020.

How much money people spent on Christmas in 2023

The average amount spent for Christmas per British household was £708 in 2023, according to NimbleFins analysis of retail spending data (excluding automotive fuels) from the ONS.

This figure was calculated by comparing the extra retail sales in October, November and December compared to the rest of the year (January through September).

Here are the rough calculations: The average weekly retail excl. auto fuel spend per household across the first nine months of the year was £308/week. Next we calculate how much extra spending there was above and beyond this weekly run rate—this represents our Christmas spending.

Average weekly retail excl. auto fuel household spending rose to £325/week in October, £371/week in November and £384 in December. Calculating the extra spend meant adding up: 4 weeks in October times an extra £17/week (£325 - £308), 4 weeks in November times an extra £64/week (£371 - £308) and 5 weeks in December times £77/week (£384 - £308) —totaling £708 of extra retail spending leading up to Christmas for 2023.

How much money people are on track to spend for Christmas in 2024

The NimbleFins data team estimates that the typical British household will spend around £719 for Christmas in 2024.

To calculate this figure, we applied the 2023 spending increases (rates) for November and December to the average retail spending figures seen so far for the first nine months of 2024, through September. The team felt it was appropriate to use the 2023 rates (as opposed to the ten-year or 30-year rates, also shown in the table above or in the section on historical Christmas spending below) because 1) 2023 is more recent so it feels most relevant and 2) just-released October figures indicate a 2024 October boost of 5.6%, which is nearly identical to the 5.7% seen in October 2023 (both of which are noticeably lower than the 10-year and 30-year averages of 7.8% and 6.7%).

Instead, if spending habits revert back to the 10-year rates for November and December then average Christmas spending for 2024 will be around £855.

And if spending habits revert back to the 30-year rates for November and December then average Christmas spending for 2024 will be around £788.

Historical Christmas Spending

Historically, going back 30 years, the data show a similar pattern of increased retail spending at Christmas:

As you can see, retail spending starts increasing each holiday season with a small uptick in October, following by even higher retail spending in November, then a peak each December.

Over the past 30 years, average retail spending was 6.7% higher in October compared to January - September; 16% higher in November compared to January - September; and 33.1% higher in December compared to January - September.

The ten year averages are similar, but indicate notably higher spending increases in November (21%). The chart below shows the average weekly retail spend by month, averaged over the past ten years. The spending in the red box is essentially "extra" spending for the holidays. Note, the ten-year average rates are pulled upwards due to higher Christmas spending during Covid.

In 2023, the data show that Christmas spending was more restrained compared to the rest of the year, with spending figures just 5.7%, 20.6% and 25% higher in October, November and December (compared to the first nine months of the year).

Christmas Spending by Region

NimbleFins has done some back-of-the-envelope calculations to estimate Christmas spending by region of England. This analysis is a bit simplistic, but let's explain what we did here. We looked at a different set of ONS data—Family Spending data—to see how spending typically varies by region. We used average weekly total expenditures per household, less housing (including mortgage, rent, utilities) and transport costs, and compared how much households in each area typically spend. For example, households in the South East typically spend 16.1% more than average, as you can see in the table below. We then applied this figure to our Christmas spending estimates. These calculations do assume that normal day-to-day spending differences between regions will hold for Christmas spending. This could be a big assumption.

Nonetheless, the data showed that South East households will spend the most, an estimated £835 this Christmas (if spending this year mimics 2023 buying habits).

North East households are estimated to spend the least, at £564 for 2024 (or up to £671 if spending habits revert to 30-year patterns).

Data & Methodology

NimbleFins analysed data from the Retail Sales Index to understand typical retail spending habits, and how they change leading up to Christmas.

Here is a summary of some of the data used in this study.

Average weekly retail spend (excl auto fuel), £000s, Great Britain

This data represents retail spending (excl auto fuel) across the whole of Great Britain. You can see how the numbers start rising in October and spike in December, for practically all time periods (we looked at 2023, a 10-year average and a 30-year average). This data formed the basis for our analysis for calculating Christmas spending:

Average Christmas retail spending per household by Year

Next, our team applied an additional piece of data (number of households in GB each year) and calculated the average amount of extra retail spending by households in October, November and December by year, from 1996 through 2023.

This assumes that any retail spending in October through December that is above and beyond the running average for the year across the first nine months (January through September) is for Christmas.