UK Cities spending the most on Christmas

Belfast Revealed as Biggest Festive Spenders

• With the festive season just around the corner, a new survey looked at which cities are the most generous when it comes to gifting
• Belfast were revealed as the city that spend the most on Christmas presents
• Londoners came out as the most generous people in the UK when it comes to giving presents throughout the year

Belfast has come out on top as the city that spends the most on Christmas presents, according to a new survey[i].

As Christmas approaches and people look to cheer up friends and family after a tough couple of years, Cartwright and Butler has looked into where the most generous people in the UK are located when it comes to gifting presents.

To form the ‘generous givers index’, research looked into a number of different factors before ranking cities on the results, including:

• The percentage of people that have surprised someone in the past year with a gift
• The number of people that admit to spending more on others since the pandemic started
• The average number of gifts bought per month
• How much money people spend on others for different occasions (including birthdays, Christmas, valentines, general surprises and gifts for colleagues)

Belfast was found to be the city that spends the most on Christmas presents, with an average of £83.69 per person. Furthermore, half of those (50%) in Belfast also said they’re more likely to spend more on loved ones following the pandemic.

Following closely behind on Christmas spending was London, averaging out at £73.63 on gifts per person.

The top five cities likely to spend the most on Christmas presents were:

1. Belfast (£83.69)
2. London (£73.63)
3. Southampton (£66.11)
4. Newcastle (£65.99)
5. Glasgow (£63.37)

As well as London topping highly in how much they spend on Christmas presents, Londoners were also crowned as the most generous city in the UK when it comes to gifting throughout the year. People in the city send an average of 2.5 gifts a month to friends and family, as well as 89% of Londoners surprising loved ones with a present this past year.

Southampton was also revealed as a very generous city, with 91% saying they have surprised loved ones with a gift and 39% saying they would spend more on presents as a result of the pandemic.

The top five most generous cities we revealed as:

1. London 
2. Southampton
3. Belfast
4. Manchester
5. Bristol

Those living in Edinburgh were revealed as the least generous. This was followed by Norwich, Cardiff, Sheffield, and Nottingham.

The data also showed that a third of us (33%) are buying more gifts and spending more on others since the beginning of the pandemic – a possible symptom of missing our friends and family over the past 19 months.

Gemma Barton, Head of Marketing & Ecommerce at Cartwright & Butler, commented on the findings:

“2021 has been another difficult year for many and so it’s great to see that so many people across the country are looking to cheer others up with a gift – regardless of what the value is.

“We wanted to conduct this research to get an insight into just how much people are spending on others and which locations in the country are the most generous. We offer a range of hampers that are perfect for cheering people up, these can also be personalised to add an extra touch.”