(The Center Square) – Colorado families are gearing up to pay significantly more on Christmas this year over last year.
The new study from CouponBirds also found that Colorado parents will spend more per child than the national average.
“Colorado parents will be spending just shy of $600 this year,” Caitlyn Bishop, a spokesperson for CouponBirds, told The Center Square.
While the national average per child is $521, Colorado parents are spending $599 per child. Across the nation, New York is coming in at the most expensive at $732, and South Dakota is the cheapest at $266.
Parents in neighboring states to Colorado are spending significantly less than their Coloradan counterparts. For example, Wyoming’s average is $468, Utah’s is $462, and Kansas’ is $303. Colorado is the 15th-highest spending state nationally.
Debt will play a significant role for many parents this Christmas, with 58% of parents reporting they are anticipating going into debt to pay for gifts. That’s up from 49% in 2024.
Most of those will use credit cards to pay for Christmas gifts, while 43% plan to use buy now, pay later services, which have skyrocketed in use over the past few years. That is more than double the just 21% of parents who expected to use those services last year.
This will add to the growing credit card debit of Americans, with the average household credit card debt coming in at $7,321, up 5.8% from last year.
Only 32% of parents nationally plan to avoid holiday debt entirely, down from 46% last year.
The average parent expected to spend $521 per child on gifts, up from $461 in 2024. That is a 13% increase nationally.
Colorado saw a slightly smaller year-over-year increase. In 2024, Colorado parents spent an average of $538. This year, that spending saw an increase of 11%.
Tariffs and a lack of Christmas savings are the factors having the biggest impacts on parents. Nearly two-thirds of parents (63%) report that tariffs have directly diminished their purchasing power, while only 46% of parents reported saving specifically for Christmas.
Not all states saw a dramatic increase in Christmas spending this year, though. In fact, six states saw a decrease in spending from last year. Iowa parents led that charge, with the state reporting a 6% decrease in average spending.
Experts are anticipating nearly record overall spending on Christmas this year.
According to the National Retail Federation, consumers in the U.S. will spend an average of $890 on core holiday items including gifts, decorations, food and other holiday-related purchases this year. That is down 1.3% from last year’s holiday budget, which was the highest ever reported.
The NRF study also found that, while the majority of Americans shopping online for the holiday season, 42% also anticipated shopping at discount stores. That’s down 3% from last year.
