Economics of Christmas

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The King of Prussia mall in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania decorated during the Christmas season King of Prussia Mall second floor near Bloomingdale's at Christmas.jpg
The King of Prussia mall in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania decorated during the Christmas season
Christmas decorations abound in many shopping malls Shopping christmas tree.jpg
Christmas decorations abound in many shopping malls

The economics of Christmas are significant because Christmas is typically a high-volume selling season for goods suppliers around the world. Sales increase dramatically as people purchase gifts, decorations, and supplies to celebrate. In the U.S., the "Christmas shopping season" starts as early as October. [1] [2] In Canada, merchants begin advertising campaigns just before Halloween (31 October), and step up their marketing following Remembrance Day on 11 November. In the UK and Ireland, the Christmas shopping season starts from mid-November, around the time when high street Christmas lights are turned on. [3] [4] In the United States, it has been calculated that about one fifth of retail sales [5] to one quarter of all personal spending takes place during the Christmas/holiday shopping season. [6] Figures from the U.S. Census Bureau reveal that expenditure in department stores nationwide rose from $20.8 billion in November 2004 to $31.9 billion in December 2004, an increase of 54 percent. In other sectors, the pre-Christmas increase in spending was even greater, due to a November through December buying surge of 100% in bookstores and 170% in jewelry stores. In the same year employment in American retail stores rose from 1.6 million to 1.8 million in the two months leading up to Christmas. [7] This means that while consumers might spend more during this season, they also are given increased employment opportunities as sales rise to meet the increased demand.

Contents

Industries completely dependent on Christmas include Christmas cards, of which 1.9 billion are sent in the United States each year, and live Christmas trees, of which 20.8 million were cut in the U.S. in 2002. [8] In most Western nations, Christmas Day is the least active day of the year for business and commerce; almost all retail, commercial and institutional businesses are closed, and almost all industries cease activity (more than any other day of the year), whether laws require such or not. In England and Wales, the Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004 prevents all large shops from trading on Christmas Day. Film studios release many high-budget movies during the holiday season, including Christmas films, fantasy movies or high-tone dramas with high production values to hopes of maximizing the chance of nominations for the Academy Awards.

Each year (most notably 2000) money supply in US banks is increased for Christmas shopping. Monthly Changes in Currency.jpg
Each year (most notably 2000) money supply in US banks is increased for Christmas shopping.

One economist's analysis calculates that, despite increased overall spending, Christmas is a deadweight loss under orthodox microeconomic theory, because of the effect of gift-giving. This loss is calculated as the difference between what the gift giver spent on the item and what the gift receiver would have paid for the item. It is estimated that in 2001, Christmas resulted in a $4 billion deadweight loss in the U.S. alone. [9] [10] Because of complicating factors, this analysis is sometimes used to discuss possible flaws in current microeconomic theory. Other deadweight losses include the effects of Christmas on the environment and the fact that material gifts are often perceived as white elephants, imposing cost for upkeep and storage and contributing to clutter. [11]

History

In the early 90s Joel Waldfogel an assistant professor of economics at Yale University published a paper titled "The Deadweight Loss of Christmas" which stated and went into detail on the relationship between the value of an item to someone verses the actual cost of that item. This concept led to the economic term "deadweight loss" which is what we now call the loss of economic efficiency from an under or over valued item. In 1993 John L. Solow argued Waldfogel's theory with his own paper " Is it Really the Thought that Counts?". Which gives two examples that can speak on maximum utility based on different gifts. One being that when giving a gift of money this allows others to spend on items that give them maximum utility per dollar spent and the other being that when one parties utilities depend on another's consumption of particular goods, gifts of goods can be more economically efficient than money.In 2009, Lydia Yao, who graduated from Duke University with a bachelors of science in economics, provided another point of view to the topic of gift giving, by using a model to help measure the sentimental value of a non-monetary gift versus one that cost money.

Preparation

Christmas club

Christmas clubs are savings programs, the first of which were offered by various banks in the United States during the Great Depression. The concept is that bank customers deposit a set amount of money each week into a special savings account, and receive the money back at the end of the year for Christmas shopping. For decades, financial institutions competed for the holiday savings business, offering enticing premiums and advertising items such as tokens. The Dime Saving Bank of Toledo, Ohio, issued a brass token "good for 25 cents in opening a Christmas account" for 1922–1923. There were also numbered tokens issued by the Atlantic Country Trust Co. in Atlantic City, New Jersey, inscribed on the reverse: "Join our Christmas Club and Have Money When You Need It Most." In the February 2006 issue of Forbes magazine, business writer James Surowiecki summarized the accounts' appeal: "The popularity of Christmas club accounts isn't a mystery; if their money was in a regular account, people assumed they'd spend it." [12]

Sears Wish Book

The Sears Wish Book is a popular Christmas-gift catalog released by Sears Holdings Corporation, annually in September. The catalog contains toys and other holiday-related merchandise. The first Sears Wish Book was printed in 1933, [13] and was a separate big-book catalog from the annual Sears Christmas catalog. In the 2007 edition of the catalog, half of the total number of pages was devoted to Christmas toys and the remainder focused on other store items including appliances, tools, clothes and jewelry. [14]

Commercialism Christmas

A free market is one where buyers are willing to buy a good from a seller at that set price. This is due to supply and demand. Christmas stimulates the economy from all facets. The supply and demand of both goods and services increase around Christmas. This is due to the overconsumption and commercialization of Christmas, oftentimes causing demand to exceed supply. Retail has utilized Christmas as generate additional sales. Consumers feel the need to assimilate to the norms of the holiday, which can result in debt. Interest rates benefit the credit card industry. Outside of the retail market sales increase in other sectors of the economy such as grocery and travel. Travel during the holidays increases by   Retail sales are dependent on the supply chain of shipping and distribution, increasing revenue there as well. All of these additional products equate to additional jobs, further stimulating the economy. The demand of Christmas creates jobs that otherwise would not exist. The economic impact of commercialism Christmas is significant. Advertising for Christmas promotes shopping and emphasizes the significance of the social significance gift giving plays. The magnitude of advertising on consumers to purchase has changed the narrative for Christmas. Gratification is achieved through buying presents, traveling to be with family, and over consumption, all stimulating the economy.

Commencement

Christmas creep

Christmas creep is a merchandising phenomenon in which merchants and retailers exploit the commercialized status of Christmas by moving up the start of the holiday shopping season. [15] The term was first used in the mid-1980s. [16] It is associated with a desire of merchants to take advantage of particularly heavy Christmas-related shopping well before Black Friday in the United States and before Hallowe’en in Canada. The term is not used in the UK and Ireland, where retailers call Christmas the "golden quarter", that is, the three months of October through December is the quarter of the year in which the retail industry hopes to make the most profit. [17] It can apply for other holidays as well, notably St. Valentine’s Day, Easter and Mother's Day. The motivation for holiday creep is for retailers to lengthen their selling interval for seasonal merchandise in order to maximize profit and to give early-bird shoppers a head start on that holiday. However, it is not clear that this practice has been consistently beneficial for retailers. [18]

United States

DC USA shopping center in Washington, D.C., on Black Friday DCUSA.Gallery11.BB&BBlackFriday.Wikipedia.jpg
DC USA shopping center in Washington, D.C., on Black Friday

Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States (the fourth Thursday of November), often regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. In recent years, most major retailers have opened extremely early (increasingly even on the night of Thanksgiving itself, albeit not without controversy [19] ) and offered promotional sales to kick off the holiday shopping season, similar to Boxing Day sales in many Commonwealth nations. Black Friday is not a holiday, but California and some other states observe "The Day After Thanksgiving" as a holiday for state government employees, sometimes in lieu of another federal holiday such as Columbus Day. [20]

Many non-retail employees and schools have both Thanksgiving and the day after off, followed by a weekend, thereby increasing the number of potential shoppers. It has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005, [21] although news reports, which at that time were inaccurate, [22] have described it as the busiest shopping day of the year for a much longer period of time. [23] In recent years, countries other than America have begun observing Black Friday, including Canada, the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth nations, although the use of the term 'Black Friday' is not ubiquitous in these countries.

Mexico

El Buen Fin is an annual nationwide shopping event in Mexico, in existence since 2011 and taking place on the third weekend of November in Mexico, and the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. On this weekend, major retailers extend their store hours [24] and offer special promotions, including extended credit terms and price promotions. The purpose of this weekend is to revive the economy by encouraging consumption [25] and improve the quality of life of all Mexican families by implementing promotions and discounts in the prices of various products. It was inspired by the American celebration, Black Friday and emerged as an initiative of Council of Business Coordination, [26] in association with the federal government and private sector organizations.

Duration

Christmas market

Christmas market in Jena, Germany ChristmasMarketJena.jpg
Christmas market in Jena, Germany

A Christmas market is a street market associated with the celebration of Christmas during the four weeks of Advent. These markets originated in Germany, Austria, South Tyrol, North Italy and many French regions such as Alsace, Lorraine, Savoy, [27] but are now being held in many other countries. The history of Christmas markets goes back to the Late Middle Ages in the German-speaking part of Europe and in many parts of the former Holy Roman Empire that includes many eastern region of France and Switzerland. Dresden's Striezelmarkt was first held in 1434. The Christmas markets of Bautzen (first held in 1384), [28] Frankfurt (first mentioned in 1393) and Munich (1310) were even older. The Vienna "December market" was a kind of forerunner of the Christmas market and dates back to 1294.

Christmas Price Index

The Christmas Price Index is a tongue-in-cheek economic indicator, maintained by the U.S. bank PNC Wealth Management, which tracks the cost of the items in the carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas". [29] [30] PNC compiles both a "Christmas Price Index" and "The True Cost of Christmas." The "Christmas Price Index" is calculated by adding the cost of the items in the song. The "True Cost of Christmas," however, is calculated by buying a partridge in a pear tree on each of the twelve days, buying two turtle doves from the second day onward, for a total of 22 turtle doves, etc., for the complete set of 364 items. [31]

Conclusion

United States

Super Saturday is the last Saturday before Christmas, a major day of revenue for American retailers, marking the end of the shopping season they and many customers believe begins on Black Friday. Super Saturday targets last-minute shoppers. Typically the day is ridden with one-day sales in an effort to accrue more revenue than any other day in the Christmas and holiday season. [32]

Christmas Day

Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004

The Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004 (c 26) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It prevents shops over 280 m2/3,000 sq ft from opening on Christmas Day in England and Wales. Shops smaller than the limit are not affected. The Act was introduced to the House of Commons by Kevan Jones, MP for North Durham as a Private Member's Bill on 7 January 2004. The aim of the Act was to keep Christmas Day a "special" day, whereby all major retailers would be closed. Although it was traditional for major retailers to close on 25 December, some retailers, such as Woolworths, began to open some stores in the late 1990s. Both religious groups and shop worker unions were against the idea of Christmas openings, leading to pressure on the Government to pass legislation to prevent the practice. In 2006, the Scottish Parliament debated a similar law that would apply to shops in Scotland. The law was enacted in 2007 and it contained special provisions for New Year's Day retail activities too. [33]

Criticism

Unwanted gifts

Economist Joel Waldfogel  noted that because of the mismatch between what the giftee values the gift and the value paid for by the giver, the gifts lose between 10% and one-third of their value; he calls it the "deadweight loss of Christmas". [34] This leads to gifts often being returned, sold, or re-gifted. In a 2016 European online survey, 15% of respondents were unhappy about their gifts and 10% could not remember what they had received. Twenty-five percent of respondents said they had re-gifted their presents to someone else, 14% sold the items, 10% tried to return them to the store, and 5% returned the gift to the giver. [35] Seniors were more likely to send their unwanted presents to charity, while those aged 25 to 34 "simply threw them away". [35] Gifts that are least likely to be appreciated rely on personal tastes, and include items like perfumes and cosmetics, ornaments, and clothing. [35]

Buy Nothing Christmas

Buy Nothing Christmas is an ongoing protest and reaction to the commercialization of the North American Christmas season. It started unofficially in 1968, when Ellie Clark and her family decided to publicly disregard the commercial aspects of the Christmas holiday. [36] Contemporarily a movement was created to extend Adbusters' Buy Nothing Day into the entire Christmas season. [36] Buy Nothing Christmas first became official in 2001 when a small group of Canadian Mennonites created a website and gave the movement a name. [37]

Buy Nothing Day

Buy Nothing Day is an international day of protest against consumerism. In North America, Buy Nothing Day is held the Friday after U.S. Thanksgiving (24 November 2023; 29 November 2024; 28 November 2025); elsewhere, it is held the following day, which is the last Saturday in November. [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] Buy Nothing Day was founded in Vancouver by artist Ted Dave [47] and subsequently promoted by Adbusters magazine, [48] based in Canada. The first Buy Nothing Day was organized in Canada in September 1992 "as a day for society to examine the issue of over-consumption." In 1997, it was moved to the Friday after American Thanksgiving, also called "Black Friday", which is one of the ten busiest shopping days in the United States. In 2000, advertisements by Adbusters promoting Buy Nothing Day were denied advertising time by almost all major television networks except for CNN. [38]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boxing Day</span> Commonwealth nations holiday on 26 December

Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated after Christmas Day, occurring on the second day of Christmastide. Boxing Day was once a day to donate gifts to those in need, but it has evolved to become a part of Christmas festivities, with many people choosing to shop for deals on Boxing Day. It originated in the United Kingdom and is celebrated in several Commonwealth nations. The attached bank holiday or public holiday may take place on 28 December if necessary to ensure it falls on a weekday. Boxing Day is also concurrent with the Christian festival Saint Stephen's Day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shopping</span> Buying goods

Shopping is an activity in which a customer browses the available goods or services presented by one or more retailers with the potential intent to purchase a suitable selection of them. A typology of shopper types has been developed by scholars which identifies one group of shoppers as recreational shoppers, that is, those who enjoy shopping and view it as a leisure activity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buy Nothing Day</span> Day of protest against consumerism

Buy Nothing Day is a day of protest against consumerism. In North America, the United Kingdom, Finland and Sweden, Buy Nothing Day is held the day after U.S. Thanksgiving, concurrent with Black Friday; elsewhere, it is held the following day, which is the last Saturday in November.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Friday (shopping)</span> Friday following Thanksgiving in the United States

Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States. It traditionally marks the start of the Christmas shopping season in the United States. Many stores offer highly promoted sales at discounted prices and often open early, sometimes as early as midnight or even on Thanksgiving. Some stores' sales continue to Monday or for a week.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public holidays in the United States</span> Holidays in the United States of America

In the United States, public holidays are set by federal, state, and local governments and are often observed by closing government offices or giving government employees paid time off. The federal government does not require private businesses to close or offer paid time off, as is the case for most state and local governments, so employers determine which holidays to observe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merchandising</span> Promotion of product sales

Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative way that entices customers to purchase more items or products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Back to school (marketing)</span> Period in which students and their parents purchase school supplies

In merchandising, back to school is the period in which students and their parents purchase school supplies and apparel for the upcoming school year. At many department stores, back to school sales are advertised as a time when school supplies, children's, and young adults' clothing goes on sale. Office supplies have also become an important part of back to school sales, with the rise in prominence of personal computers and related equipment in education; traditional supplies such as paper, pens, pencils and binders will often be marked at steep discounts, often as loss leaders to entice shoppers to buy other items in the store. Many states offer tax-free periods at which time any school supplies and children's clothing purchased does not have sales tax added.

Cyber Monday is a marketing term for e-commerce transactions on the Monday after Thanksgiving in the United States. It was created by retailers to encourage people to shop online. The term was coined by Ellen Davis of the National Retail Federation and Scott Silverman, and made its debut on November 28, 2005, in a Shop.org press release entitled "Cyber Monday Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year." Cyber Monday takes place the Monday after Thanksgiving; the date falls between November 26 and December 2, depending on the year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christmas creep</span> Christmas-related merchandising prior to the beginning of the holiday season

Christmas creep is a merchandising phenomenon in which merchants and retailers introduce Christmas-themed merchandise or decorations before the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, which in the United States is on the day after Thanksgiving. The term was first used in the mid-1980s.

K·B Toys was an American chain of mall-based retail toy stores. The company was founded in 1922 as Kaufman Brothers, a wholesale candy store. The company opened a wholesale toy store in 1946, and ended its candy wholesales two years later to emphasize its toy products. Retail sales began during the 1970s, using the name Kay-Bee Toy & Hobby.

Green Monday is an online retail industry term similar to Cyber Monday. The term was coined by Shopping.com, an eBay company, in 2007 to describe the best eCommerce sales day in December, usually the second Monday of December. After doing some internal research, they realized that the second Monday in December was the last day that shoppers were able to place an online order that would arrive in time for the holidays. Green Monday is defined more specifically by business research organization comScore as the last Monday with at least 10 days prior to Christmas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christmas and holiday season</span> Christmas and surrounding holiday period

The Christmas season or the festive season; also known as the holiday season or the holidays, is an annual period generally spanning from late November to early January. Incorporating Christmas Day and New Year's Day, the various celebrations during this time create a peak season for the retail sector extending to the end of the period. Christmas window displays and Christmas tree lighting ceremonies are customary traditions in various locales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Talkboy</span> Voice recorder and sound novelty toys

Talkboy is a line of handheld voice recorder and sound novelty toys manufactured by Tiger Electronics in the 1990s. The brand began as a result of a promotional tie-in with the 1992 film Home Alone 2: Lost in New York; the most well-known product was the Deluxe Talkboy, a cassette recorder and player with a variable-speed voice changer that caused toy crazes over several holiday shopping seasons beginning in 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thanksgiving (United States)</span> American federal holiday in November

Thanksgiving is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. It is sometimes called American Thanksgiving to distinguish it from the Canadian holiday of the same name and related celebrations in other regions. It originated as a day of thanksgiving and harvest festival, with the theme of the holiday revolving around giving thanks and the centerpiece of celebrations remaining a Thanksgiving dinner. The dinner traditionally consists of foods indigenous to the Americas: turkey, potatoes, squash, corn (maize), green beans, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. Other Thanksgiving customs include charitable organizations offering thanksgiving dinner for the poor, attending religious services, and watching television events such as Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and America's Thanksgiving Parade as well as NFL football games. Thanksgiving is regarded as the beginning of the holiday season, with the day following it, Black Friday, said to be the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States.

In retail, a doorbuster or door crasher deal is an offer that is handed out early into the business's opening hours; this offer almost always is promoting a good in limited supply. These deals are designed to attract large numbers of shoppers into the business.

Super Saturday or Panic Saturday is the last Saturday before Christmas or Christmas Eve, and is a major day of revenue for American retailers, marking the end of the shopping season which begins on Black Friday. Super Saturday targets last-minute shoppers. Typically the day is ridden with one-day sales in an effort to accrue more revenue than any other day in the Christmas and holiday season. The date is slightly more likely to fall on December 22, 19, or 17, than on December 21 or 20 (57), and slightly less likely to occur on December 23 or 18 (56). On years when Christmas falls on a Sunday, Super Saturday is officially on December 17 instead of December 24 even though the last Saturday before Christmas is December 24.

Cyber Black Friday is a marketing term for the online version of Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving Day in the United States. The term made its debut in a 2009 press release entitled "Black Friday Goes Online for Cyber Black Friday". According to TechCrunch, there was $9 billion in online sales on Cyber Black Friday, which is up 21.6% from 2019. With this, the average cart-size for a shopper was $95.60, and Shopify noted that there was an average of $6.3 million spent per minute across their more than one million merchant platform. A lot of this spending was directed towards technological devices, primarily smart phones. Of the $9 billion is sales, $3.6 billion (40%) was for smart phones. However, Cyber Black Friday is still inferior to its sister, Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday is primarily known to offer more discounted items, and is projected to reach sales between $11.2 billion and $13 billion in 2020. On a more promising note, Gian Fulgoni of comScore said, "Black Friday, better known as a shopping bonanza in brick-and-mortar retail stores, is increasingly becoming one of the landmark days in the online holiday shopping world." Some Cyber Black Friday sales are short-lived, last through the weekend, into Cyber Monday, and beyond.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Small Business Saturday</span> Saturday after Thanksgiving to encourage purchases from small businesses in the United States

Small Business Saturday is a marketing initiative created and promoted by American Express to encourage holiday shopping on the Saturday after Thanksgiving in the United States, during one of the busiest shopping periods of the year. This Saturday is always the last one in November, so it falls between November 24 and November 30.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christmas gift</span> Gift given in celebration of Christmas

A Christmas gift or Christmas present is a gift given in celebration of Christmas. Christmas gifts are often exchanged on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day itself or on the last day of the twelve-day Christmas season, Twelfth Night. The practice of giving gifts during Christmastide, according to Christian tradition, is symbolic of the presentation of the gifts by the Three Wise Men to the infant Jesus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on retail</span> Aspect of viral outbreak

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a sharp economic toll on the retail industry worldwide as many retailers and shopping centers were forced to shut down for months due to mandated stay-at-home orders. As a result of these closures, online retailers received a major boost in sales as customers looked for alternative ways to shop and the effects of the retail apocalypse were exacerbated. A number of notable retailers filed for bankruptcy including Ascena Retail Group, Debenhams, Arcadia Group, Brooks Brothers, GNC, J. C. Penney, Lord & Taylor and Neiman Marcus.

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[1]

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