I was certain
the world wouldn’t end Dec. 21. So now that all that negative news is passed,
it’s time to write about the holidays.
Spending
Consumers
will be spending more during the 2012 holidays.
Sales this
year will increase 4.1 percent to $586.1 billion, according to a National
Retail Federation survey.
In a
first-time analysis, Shop.org predicts online sales will increase 12 percent
over the last holiday season to as much as $96 billion.
U.S.
consumers predict they’ll spend an average of $770 on Christmas gifts this year.
That roughly matches the $764 they estimated at this time a year ago that
they’d spend, according to a Gallup Poll survey.
Travel
On travel,
AAA projects 93.3 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home
during the year-end holidays, an increase of 1.6 percent over the 91.8 million
people who traveled last year.
Ninety
percent of travelers, 84.4 million, will travel by automobile, representing
26.7 percent of the total U.S. population.
Holiday air travel is expected to increase 4.5 percent to
5.6 million travelers, up from 5.4 million in 2011.
Celebrations
Eighty-eight percent of American adults say they
celebrate Christmas, and 81 percent of this group celebrate it as a religious
holiday, according to a 2012 Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Just
16 percent of those celebrants regard it as a secular holiday.
Another Rasmussen Reports survey finds that 88
percent of American adults celebrate Christmas with their family.
Other holiday activities reported on as part
of the survey include:
- Sixty percent plan to attend a Christmas
party this year.
- Fifty-four percent will send out Christmas
cards.
- Nine percent will go Christmas caroling.
Holiday
stress
A third Rasmussen
Reports survey finds that 46 percent of American adults consider the holiday
season joyous. Nearly as many, 42 percent, find the season stressful instead.
Twelve percent aren’t sure how they feel about the season.
Hanukkah
and Winter Solstice
I
wasn’t able to find any statistics for 2012 for estimates of the number of Americans
celebrating Hanukkah and the Winter Solstice.
However,
a 2007 Rasmussen
Reports survey found 3 percent said they would celebrate
Hanukkah and 3 percent said they would recognize the Winter Solstice.
Kwanzaa
The
celebration of Kwanzaa, created in 1966 by
professor Maulana Ron Karenga as a way for African Americans to honor their
culture, is declining.
Karenga estimates a
half-million to two million people in the U.S. celebrate Kwanzaa.
Whatever your tradition, I hope you enjoy your
holiday celebrations.
