Children get most at Christmas

Children get most at Christmas.  

  • How much do you spend on Christmas gifts? The average Swede spends $332, and of that $268 are spent on gifts for the children in the household.

  • Children get most at Christmas
    It's hardly news, but in Sweden the recipients of the most Christmas gifts are children. The average Swede spends 2,228 SEK ($332) on Christmas shopping and most of that goes to the kids.

  • “We Swedes spend—even when we look internationally—a huge amount of our Christmas funds on our children,” says Jenny Pedersén, press officer at Tradera, which conducted the survey with Ebay. In the survey, they looked at 11 European countries to see how much is spent on Christmas shopping. And although times are tough, only Brits and Irish spend more than the Swedes. And it’s not unusual for Swedes to spend at Christmastime even when coffers are low.
    “We saw that already during the recession in 2008-2009, when the retail trade did very well,” says Ulrika Holmberg, director at Centrum för konsumtionsvetenskap (Center for Consumer Science) at Göteborg University. “As a family we may abstain from spending when it comes to moving, getting another car or vacationing abroad. But then we put a little extra into Christmas.” According to the survey, it’s also clear that Swedes spend most of the money on presents for the kids in the household. Around 1800 SEK ($268) is spent on children. Again, Sweden comes in third in the survey as only Ireland and Britain spend more on children. “My theory is that we celebrate with a smaller nuclear family, and then the children take more space,” says Jenny Pedersén. In each of the 11 countries, 1000 people between ages 16 and 64 participated in the survey.
    How much do Europeans spend on Christmas presents?
    1. England $404
    2. Ireland $364
    3. Sweden $332
    4. Austria $330
    5. France $325
    6. Spain $280
    7. Germany $270
    8. Belgium $260
    9.Italy $255
    10. Russia $236
    11. Poland $150.

  • On giving in general only 10 percent of Swedes say it's more fun to receive Christmas gifts than give them. Swedes: Giving and receiving