Australians going giftless

CHRISTMAS gift-giving may be going out of date, with more than a quarter (26 per cent) of Australians opting for a giftless Christmas, a survey shows.

The Choosi Clutter Report 2017 says households spend an average of $936 on Christmas gifts each year — but 65 per cent believe it is a waste of their hard-earned dollars.

And close to half admit they struggle to afford the festive bakery general manager Jon Haggett said.

“This is reflected in our sales, with Victorians buying the most pavlovas in the country so far this year.”

More pavlovas are sold in the week leading up to Christmas than the rest of the year combined.

And while Christmas pudding and traditional fruit cake are still firm favourites with the older generation, young customers crave salted caramel-flavoured bombe and brownies.

The Australian Retailers season. Figures show more than half of Australians feel obliged to buy presents for family, while one in five prefer to give to charity.

Mother of four Jaclyn Jenkins, 34, gives charity cards, rather than buying presents.

“We will give them a card saying something like, ‘You have purchased a chicken for someone in Africa’,” she said.

The report says more than Association predicts shoppers nationwide will splurge $20.2 billion on food from mid-November to Christmas Eve.

Woolworths expects to sell more than 80,000kg of turkeys, six million fruit mince pies, and half a million pavlovas nationwide in the week before Christmas alone.

Shoppers are also set to snap up more than 1.2 million kilograms of fresh Australian prawns, with a whopping 60 per cent bought in the two days before December 25. $500 worth of presents are resold or re-gifted and more than $300 worth become unwanted clutter or are thrown away.

St Vincent de Paul Society NSW CEO Jack de Groot advises buying gifts to enhance someone’s life.

“A lot of gifts just get stored in cupboards, so it’s important to spend your money on something that will make a difference,” he said.