Christmas 2024, 25 billion euro expenditure by households. High prices at the table and in travel

This Christmas, now just around the corner, families will spend a total of more than EUR 25 billion on gifts under the tree, food purchases, lunches and dinners at restaurants and travel. This is stated by Codacons, according to which the average expenditure per family for the next holidays rises to 992 euros.

For Christmas gifts to be given to friends and relatives, spending will stand at EUR 9.5 billion, thanks mainly to the Black Friday effect, with as many as one in two purchases made during the discount period representing an early Christmas gift, consolidating the trend of recent years.

For the traditional Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas lunch more than 3 billion euros will be spent, but the high prices will weigh on the tables of Italians: the food sector registers price lists in significant growth with peaks in the last month of +20% over the year for butter, +13.3% for coffee, +9.7% for olive oil, +23.7% for tomatoes, +11.2% for salad, +8.5% for chocolate. Compared to last year, the price lists of industrial pandoro and panettone cakes are up by around +4%, with the average price in the main commercial chains varying between 5 and 7 euros, but rising to 14 euros for top-of-the-range products; for supermarket branded products, the price lists range between 3.50 and 5 euros. Significantly more expensive are artisan panettone cakes, whose average prices range from 30 to 35 euros, but go up to 60 euros if they are signed by famous chefs. It is much worse for chocolate Christmas sweets: if for pandoro and panettone in their chocolate variants (iced, with cocoa creams, etc.) the increases are on average 12.5%, the record for price increases this year goes to classic chocolate nougats, with the price lists of the main brands rising by 30% compared to last year.

Millions of Italians will then set off on their travels during the Christmas holidays, generating a turnover estimated by Codacons at 12.7 billion euros: Again weighing on the final expenditure are the heavy increases in prices and tariffs that are affecting the tourism and transport sector, with holiday packages now costing an average of 13.4% more than last Christmas, while to sleep in a hotel one spends 6.1% more; train fares are up 3.9%, while European flights have risen by 8.5% on an annual basis.

Finally, around 420 million euro will be spent on Christmas lunch or Christmas Eve dinner at a restaurant (+5% on 2023).