How Much Is Utah Spending On Christmas This Year?

I've always liked the Christmas season. As a kid, it meant the biggest break in the school year with the hope that we were now about halfway back to the summer time where the cares of the classroom were far away. There was the music, the festive food of the season, the decorations, the lights, and the general cheerfulness of the season. And the anticipation was there too.

I would wander off to the various stores in the area, or glance through the catalogs that were coming to the house on a daily basis, and work up “the list” of what I hoped that Santa would fulfill.

And of course there was Christmas day, with the big family breakfast, everything under the tree, and the inevitable trip of to one or both of the grandparents homes.

Back then, I never put much thought in to what it cost mom and dad to provide the memories each Christmas brought. While we were comfortable for the most part, it's not like we were living a life of luxury, and I'm sure my parents struggled to meet our Christmas desires.

It looks like this year will also see people stretching to give Christmas desires. This year, holiday sales are projected to grow by 2.5% to 3.5%, topping a staggering $980 billion. While this signals robust consumer activity, it also highlights a trend of increasing financial strain on households.

One major source of stress is the rise in credit card debt. In the third quarter of 2024, the average household credit card debt reached $9,706, marking a 5.1% increase from the same period in 2023, according to WalletHub. For many, the added expense of holiday shopping only deepens this burden, particularly if balances are carried into the new year and accrue interest. A holiday spending spree may feel festive in the moment, but it often leaves lingering regret once the bills arrive.

Of course, the prudent thing to have done was to plan through out the year and to have funding set aside to meet the demands of holiday giving, but the question is how much? Well, WalletHub analyzed data from over 550 U.S. cities to determine a sustainable holiday budget for each. Using five key factors—such as average income, age demographics, and savings-to-expense ratios—this approach aims to provide a realistic framework for enjoying the holidays without breaking the bank.

Ten cities in Utah were included in those 550 cities. So by adding together the average holiday spending budgets in those ten cities and then dividing by 10, I came up with an average spending budget for the holidays in Utah of $1409.10.

Provo was the lowest in spending on the list with holiday budget of $805. Sandy was on the high end for a holiday budget coming in at $2,487.00. St. George was the only southern Utah city included on the list and had an average holiday budget of $1200.00.

So that's what WalletHub says should be our budgets when we consider what we will spend this year on the holidays.

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By the way, for the fun of it I dropped Sandy from the list, added up the remaining cites budgets and divided by nine. That dropped the average holiday budget in Utah down to $1157.34. Thanks a lot, Sandy.