One in six have yet to make a start
The results of a new YouGov survey reveal that some Brits must be feeling pretty smug right now, because they have already completed their Christmas shopping. As of Friday last week one in eight Brits (13%) have bought all the presents they intend to give this year.
When you take into account the fact that an additional 10% of Brits don’t intend to buy any Christmas presents at all, this means that just over two weeks out from the big day three quarters of us have yet to purchase all of our gifts.
About three in ten of us (29%) say we are most of the way along, while a similar proportion (30%) say they have bought some of their presents. Another 17% have yet to procure a single gift.
Despite the association of the festive season with wise men, it seems that women tend to be the better organised gender when it comes to gift buying. While half of women (49%) say they’ve bought all or most of their Yuletide gifts, this figure is only 33% among men. At this stage in the season men are twice as likely to say they’ve not bought any of their Christmas this year as women (22% versus 11%).
The five British Christmas shopping groups
Few Brits intend to leave it down to the wire. Of those who are yet to complete their shopping, 37% will do it this week, and another 36% next week. A further 6% think they will snag their final surprise on Monday 23rd, while an identical 6% are going to cut it as close as Christmas Eve.
Combining people’s responses to the two questions has allowed us to identify the five types of Christmas shopper.
First are the Speedy Santas, who have already completed their Christmas shopping. Second are the Grinches and non-participants, who will do none at all. These groups make up 13% and 10% of Brits respectively.
Then there are the Well-prepared Wenceslauses, which makes up 37% of Brits and are the largest group. This group has either bought some of their presents but will have completed their Christmas shopping by no later than December 15th, or have already done most of their gift-buying and will have picked up the last one or two pieces by no later than December 22nd.
After this are the Relaxed Reindeer. A quarter of Brits come under this group, who aren’t very far along with their shopping – having bought only some or even none of their presents yet – but like their gifts will be all wrapped up by December 22nd.
The final group are the Eleventh-hour Elves. Slightly more than 10% of Brits make up this group, who all admit they expect to make their final purchases no earlier than December 23rd.
Photo: Getty
