Black Friday Eve

Whether you’re a crack-of-dawn doorbuster the morning after Thanksgiving, or a Buy Nothing Day adherent, at some point you will likely purchase something for the upcoming holidays—gifts, decorations, wrapping paper, food for holiday meals. But according to a 2009 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey commissioned by the National Retail Federation, most of you will be spending much less. A year after the chaos surrounding the country’s economic collapse, uncertainty still reigns. Last year, holiday spending was down 7.65 percent per person, and this year a drop off of another 3.2 percent is projected.

Average holiday spending by year per person