According to a survey by Picodi, Singaporeans spend an average of S$460 during Christmas with most of the money spent on food (43%), followed by gifts (31%) and Christmas outfits (23%).
The biggest chunk of the money they spend during Christmas is on food and in average they spend S$ 196 just on it
Besides that, during the year-end festive season, many of them want to make their family and friends happy, which is why 63% of them find it’s a good opportunity to give their friends a gift, whereas 45% of them say they buy presents for their relatives and 36% decided to purchase gifts for their colleagues. However, only 6% of respondents declared that they help charities or make Christmas donations. As such, this is probably why Singaporeans spend an average of S$157 on Christmas gifts alone.
But, what kind of gifts do they actually like to buy? According to the respondents’ input, the most popular categories are accessories like ties and scarves (35%), toys (33%), sweets (25%), clothes (25%) and gift cards (23%).
However, when asked on what are the most desirable gifts to receive for this year, 38% of them revealed that they prefer money, 33% said electronic items, 32% opted for gift cards and only 31% picked accessories. On the other hand, sweets (36%), alcohol (34%) and underwear (28%) were voted as the least desirable gifts to receive. This contradicts with the kind of gifts Singaporeans like to buy because accessories and sweets top their list, but it’s not something that the public actually like to receive.
When it comes to picking Christmas gifts, almost half of Singaporeans (46%) try to find out what the receiver would like to get. Only a small group of people (42%) buy presents on a hunch, while the remaining 12% ask directly.
However, one interesting point to note is that most of them (57%) leave Christmas gifts until the last moment – December. Despite having mega sales like the popular Black Friday in November, shopping malls and retailers only managed to convince 31% of them to hunt for Christmas gifts in earlier.
