As a nation, we may stop believing in Santa by the age of eight, but more than half of us will still take time to sit down and write out what we’d like to find under the Christmas tree this year, according to a study.
‘The Emotional Christmas Shopper’, a new report by agency The Marketing Store, has shown that more than 50% of us are still intently preoccupied with getting our hands on goodies we have been lusting after all year, taking time to write a detailed wish-list, just like when we were kids.
And the old maxim “it’s the thought that counts” couldn’t be further from the truth: 70% of us are careful to tell friends and family the exact items we want for Christmas, even strategically planning who we hint what to, to avoid double-ups and maximise our chances of holiday cheer.
The Marketing Store believes that this obsession with what we get at Christmas may have been heightened recently by long months of tightening the purse-strings and boycotting luxuries since the start of the recession.
The agency’s head of planning and strategy Wendy Lanchin commented: “Current economic pressures mean we now have fewer opportunities to treat ourselves throughout the year, and Christmas may be the one time we have access to products we have been fantasising about all year. As such, it’s understandable that a considerable amount of planning goes into drawing up a wish-list, and getting the message out there about what’s on it.”
When it comes to hitting the Christmas stores, grocery shopping is the part we enjoy the least, with one shopper in ten feeling actively negative, 30% feeling neutral or unengaged, and more shoppers feeling the retailer has let them down than in any other sector.
Men bear the brunt of Christmas shopping angst, with 59% feeling happiest once it is over. They are goal-focused shoppers, and can suffer feelings of fear and even failure if they can’t find what they had in mind. Women are more content shoppers, with 58% of women feeling happy throughout the process.
Both genders are most emotionally engaged when shopping for tech gadgets like smartphones and MP3s, with 74% of us feeling strong emotions throughout the experience. However, although 68% of us feel happy shopping for electricals, other emotions such as anger or sadness are also intensified if we do not find what we are looking for. This anxiety is heightened when we are looking to fulfil those all-important Christmas wishes.
Young children who still believe in Santa are the most stressful people to shop for, as they will expect to receive the exact items on their wish-list. Interestingly, despite children being more exposed to information and media than ever before, parents report that kids still discover Santa is not real at the same age, on average, as their own generation: eight.
Lanchin commented: “This goes some way to debunking the myth that this is an age of completely lost innocence. At a time when there is so much hype around kids not being allowed to be kids any longer, this is a refreshing discovery.”
