20% Americans SKIPPING Christmas – Find Out Why?

A beautifully decorated house with Christmas lights in a snowy setting

Americans are about to spend more than ever on the holidays while a record share quietly cuts back, skips gifts, and wonders how long this balancing act can last.

Story Snapshot

42% of Americans say they will scale back holiday spending compared with last year
One in five plans to skip gifts altogether for at least some friends or family
Retailers still expect holiday sales to break the $1 trillion mark for the first time
A widening “say-do gap” separates cautious talk from what actually gets rung up at the register

Americans Feel Secure, Yet Reach for the Brake

The latest Nationwide survey captures a tension that defines the 2025 holidays: 55% of Americans tell pollsters they feel secure about their personal finances, yet 42% still plan to spend less on the season than they did last year. That is not classic crisis behavior; that is preemptive caution. Many households appear to trust their own paychecks but not the broader direction of prices, taxes, or Washington’s judgment about either.

Among those tightening the belt, nearly half say they will simply buy fewer gifts, 38% will trade down to cheaper options, and 20% will skip gifts entirely. That last number matters. When one in five adults opts out of gifting for at least some people, it signals a quiet cultural shift from “more is better” to “enough is enough.” From a conservative, common-sense lens, that looks less like Scrooge and more like delayed backlash to years of elevated prices.

Record Sales on Paper, Real Restraint in the Aisles

At the same time consumers talk about cutting back, the National Retail Federation projects holiday sales will cross the $1 trillion line for the first time, with growth of 3.7% to 4.2% over last year. PwC finds average planned gift spending up from $721 in June to $770 by October, a 7% rise that pushes total fourth-quarter spending to 3.2% higher year over year. The math does not match the mood and that gap may be the most important signal of all.

PwC and others describe this as a “say-do gap”: people tell surveys they will behave one way, then their carts tell a different story. Some Americans talk like recession hawks and shop like times are still decent. The pattern fits a familiar reality: high-income households and younger shoppers often drive the topline numbers, while lower- and middle-income families quietly cut categories like apparel and electronics to protect the basics. That divergence rarely shows up in glittering sales headlines but shapes how communities actually feel once the bills arrive.

Who Cuts Back, Who Splurges, and Why It Matters

McKinsey’s ConsumerWise data shows the sharpest restraint among baby boomers, where only about 20% intend to splurge, compared with far higher splurge rates for high-income Gen Z and millennials. Lower-income Americans are more likely to report holding budgets flat or trimming them, while roughly 65% of high-income households say they will spend the same or more than last year. That is a tale of two holidays: one defined by “deals and discipline,” the other by “experiences and upgrades.”

YouGov polling finds 36% of adults cutting back on food and drink for the holidays, with about 65% aiming to keep their holiday food budget under $300. Many still insist on core traditions, about 69% say items like turkey or ham remain essential but the path to those staples now runs through cheaper brands, discount grocers, and fewer extras. From a conservative standpoint, that looks like families doing what they have always done under pressure: protecting rituals, trimming frills, and refusing to pretend inflation did not happen just because official statistics improved.

Tradition, Inequality, and the Political Undercurrent

Retailers, armed with rosy forecasts, prefer to spotlight resilience. NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay describes consumers as fundamentally strong, even as they voice caution about the economy. PwC underscores that actual discretionary spending has stabilized instead of collapsing, validating the view that the U.S. consumer remains the economy’s workhorse. Those narratives are not wrong, but they can flatten meaningful differences between who is driving that strength and who is straining to participate.

Lower- and middle-income households bear the brunt of higher costs while watching headlines celebrate record sales they do not feel. That disconnect feeds a political undercurrent: if voters believe the official story of prosperity ignores their own grocery receipts and holiday compromises, skepticism toward elites hardens. From a right-of-center, common-sense angle, the 2025 holiday season is less a victory lap and more a quiet referendum on whether everyday Americans trust that the next year will reward prudence or punish it.