Every year there’s a lot of stress about finding suitable gifts for Christmas just before the deadline. A survey from Germany helps reduce the agony.
Every year the same Christmas stress and the agony of choosing what to get loved ones or the mother-in-law as gifts.
The preparations are in full swing and that’s when the business news portal muula.ch got its hands on an interesting representative survey from the ‘Great Canton in the North’.
Last minute is ‘in’
Although, according to the study on the portal mydays in cooperation with market research institute Statista Q around 65 percent of Germans will spend less money on Christmas gifts compared to previous years due to current concerns.
However, according to the study, 11 percent of those surveyed still buy their gifts only during the very last days, i.e. about a week before Christmas Eve. That’s still more than 8 million people, and that ratio of figures is likely to apply to Switzerland as well.
Shared activities
This shows that shared experiences and the “gifting of time together” are absolutely in vogue.
This was also recently reported by Swiss tour operators, who are seeing an ever-increasing demand for experiences, as also reported by muula.ch.
So what do the Germans like to give away, for example, according to the portal, even though they have to tighten their belts? Golf taster courses would be such a typical experience gift, mydays said.
But also we see cheese tastings, joint hikes in a vineyard or exclusive whisky tastings standing out in the offerings.
Tension and spas
Interestingly, 34 percent of the 1,000 Germans over the age of 18 surveyed in the representative online study conducted by the market research institute said that the Christmas season was ‘far too stressful’ for them.
Seven percent describe their mood as ‘tense’
Logically, the portals find 14,000 offers of such personal experiences: How would it be to gift a relaxing facial treatment or a yoga hour to ease the Yule Tide tension?
Sinking cheerfulness
In contrast, around 50 percent of those surveyed said they felt ‘peaceful.’ Around 48 percent even found themselves ‘contemplative,’ but only 36 percent were ‘cheerful.’
Cheerfulness is obviously a question of age, because it decreases continuously with age.
While almost half of those in the 18 to 29 age group (around 49 percent) said they were in a cheerful mood, only 38 percent of those aged 40 to 49 said they were. And in the 50 to 59 age category, the figure was only 27 percent.
Small and large budgets
Gifts are primarily given to a loved one. However, the respondents have different budgets for this. Around 18 percent of Germans spend less than 50 euros.
So even small things are apparently enough and it is not necessary to give a luxury swiss watch like a Nautilus from Patek Philippe or a Royal Oak from Audemars Piguet or a lap around the Nürburgring in an exotic Lamborghini.
Around 26 percent of those surveyed, on the other hand, would spend between 50 and 100 euros. And around 27 percent would buy gifts worth more than 100 euros, it said.
Still room for retailers
Christmas stress can actually be reduced completely, and one could do it like many other people over the holidays. Just under one in ten of those surveyed said that they would not be buying any presents at all this year.
This is therefore the option taken up by more than 8 million Germans, and in Switzerland for around 870,000 Swiss.
Retailers and marketing gurus are naturally not particularly pleased about this. However the positive spin expressed still provides enormous potential to coerce millions to at least buy something at the last minute and advertisers are wooing them with their tinsel covered charms.
12/17/2022/kut./ena.