Christmas by the numbers

By Lacey Rose

updated 5:47 p.m. ET Dec. 20, 2005

NEW YORK - 'Tis the season to spend money.

According to BIGresearch, a Worthington, Ohio-based consumer research firm, Americans celebrating the holiday will shell out $758.16 on Christmas this year, up 8.1 percent from last year. That adds up to a whopping $145.9 billion, making Christmas the biggest spending holiday of the year.

And although other holidays, like Chanukah and Kwanza, fall around this time of year, Christmas is the heavy hitter when it comes to spending.

BIGresearch estimates that 94 percent of midwinter holiday celebrators will observe Christmas, while only 5 percent will celebrate Chanukah. And of that 5 percent, more than half will also celebrate Christmas. Only 1 percent will observe Kwanza.

The increase in spending this Christmas didn't surprise Phil Rist, vice president of strategy at BIGresearch. "We tend to see a natural increase in spending every year," he explains. "Among other things, items tend to cost more from one year to the next."

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