More insight into holiday spending

Here's a quick addendum to last night's post about holiday spending plans ...

Lots of people have asked what kinds of what gifts people are planning to give this year. According to our poll, the list includes clothes, gift cards, toys,  cash, electronics, and jewelry, in that order.

People who intend to give cash say they intend to be less generous, though. And, ironically, the gift people plan on giving most often --– clothing -- also happens to be the gift that people say they are least likely to want! Men, in particular, tend to dislike an apparel gift. And the worst gift of all -- at least according to the guys -- were socks. (You may want to keep that in mind the next time you're passing through the men's hosiery department.)

One victim of the bad economy may be home electronics. While electronics are still a popular gift purchase, they're not as hot as they were last year. Only 47 percent of those surveyed say they intend to give a flat-screen TV, DVD player, home-theater system this year. That’s down from 53 percent last year.

That's a shame, since Jim Willcox and my other colleagues in the Electronics group at Consumer Reports are expecting big-screen prices to come down something like 20 to 30 percent this holiday season, and they say you can already get great deals on video game consoles and Blu-ray high-definition DVD players. (Maybe it’s time to go shopping … ?) For more ways to save on Electronics, see Nick Kolman-Mandle's post on the Consumer Reports Electronics blog.

As for when people plan to do their shopping, just 29 percent of people have already started hitting the malls. Half of those surveyed expect to be finished with their shopping by the middle of December, while 24 percent will still have a ways to go by Dec. 23. Five percent admit to being laggards who will still be shopping after Christmas. They must be chomping for those day-after sales.

Finally, with more people than ever strapped for cash, "regifting" has become more popular. Thirty-one percent of those surveyed admitted to passing on a hand-me-down present last year. That’s up from 25 percent the previous year. And just for the record: Women are more likely than men to be regifters.

The second of our three holiday polls is due out on Nov. 19, so stay tuned.