With the holiday's coming up, and our current decline in economic stature, this whole recession thing makes me wonder how it is going to affect the surge of holiday spending. Many people predict that there will be a slow down of spending and retail stores are going to suffer in a major way. When the people of our nation have no money, why would they go spend it on frivolous gifts?
This question is being asked by many economists. I thought that I would research what teens are thinking about Christmas spending this year and whether they'll participate. According to a survey reported by the Retail Info Service News (RIS), teens are expected to spend more on their gifts than they did last year.
For retailers expecting lumps of coal in their cash registers this holiday season, teens' consumer confidence about holiday spending may provide an unexpected gift. More than three quarters of teens surveyed (76 percent) plan to spend as much - or more - this year than last year on holiday gifts according to Junior Achievement's 2008 Teen Holiday Spending poll.
Furthermore,
RIS
adds that teenagers are increasing their spending habits on gifts for other people immensely, as seen with the numbers given here:
Other key findings revealed that 47 percent of teens surveyed said they'd spend at least $100 on gifts, a four percent increase over last year. And, of those who said they'd spend at least some money on holiday gifts, 87 percent said they'd use their own money, 49 percent said they'd use money given to them by a parent, 19 percent said they'd use their parents' debit or credit card, and 16 percent said they'd use their own debit or credit card.
Not only is this year's economic situation taking a toll on how many presents we might have gotten, but an even more scary thing to think about is how physically and emotionally a tight Christmas budget can be. The stress level in already increasingly high and pressures for a good Christmas is making it worse.
"I think that this year, we're probably going to see a little bit more of the holiday stress than we would usually see," said Dr. Joseph Kwentus, a psychiatrist at Hinds Behavioral Health Services.
He says the rough economy will create more anxiety and depression for people struggling to get by.
There are millions of people just trying to "get by". I don't know how this stressful Christmas season is going to pan out, but I am hoping for the better. If we hope for that, then maybe change in economic policies - this would provide a fun-loving, very happy, Christmas season.