BISMARCK, N.D. (KXNET) — Holiday shopping blues are something that many of us face. With both families and inflation growing, people across the United States often burn their built-up finances on the perfect gifts for everyone in their circle of friends and family. Even if you’ve received your holiday funds in the form of a much-needed Christmas bonus, there’s a strong chance that it won’t last very long. Shopping is almost always the most costly part of the holiday season for many around the United States, and as a recent survey indicates, it’s even more costly for many of us in North Dakota.

A study performed by career site Zippia surveyed 1,900 workers across the country to determine the average amount that people spend on holiday shopping. It’s here that they found that 50% of states have a majority of people spend less than $250 in total on holiday gifts — but also that North Dakota isn’t one of them.

In fact, our state is actually one of the top ten states with the highest amount we spend every holiday on shopping. Along with eight other states, we spend an average of $250-$499 on presents for our loved ones during the Christmas season, while the other 40 states spend less than $250 a year. The one major outlier in the study is Alaska — where people spend a whopping $1,000 to $1,499 a year on holiday gifts. Throughout all of these pieces of research, though, we can see that it’s all for the spirit of Christmas — it was reported that most of these holiday shopping funds are typically spent on the children in their lives.

Aside from the highest spending states, other major findings from the study show some concerns about the overall idea of pay raises or Christmas bonuses, to begin with — as well as the fact that many people’s work schedules often clash with the festivities. Further revealing factors in the study include the following:

• Only one in every four workers (27%) gets Christmas Eve and Christmas day as paid time off.
• Only 13% of all workers expect to receive any sort of cash bonus for the holidays. While the bonus many employees would prefer is cash, an additional 5% expect a bonus via a gift card or other reward.

With a mixture of reduced holiday bonuses, it makes sense that holiday spending is reduced around the states — though here in North Dakota, we’re still doing our best to get everyone what they want from their Christmas list. We certainly hope that many of those who are spending above the national average are those who are able to afford it.

The full in-depth breakdown of Zippia’s study can be found on this page.