The best and worst gifts to give on Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day comes once a year and millions celebrate through date nights and romantic gestures. Americans go all out for this holiday by spending hundreds of dollars for this single day, over $23.9 billion dollars, according to Wallethub.
Valentine’s season has a significant economic impact. According to Fortunly, “since it first started being observed in the 6th century B.C., Valentine’s Day has evolved into one of the year’s most lucrative shopping seasons.”
This year may result in more spending than ever before due to the 2022 inflation rates. Due to the pandemic and the employee shortage, restaurants are charging more for a meal. According to the Balance, “The price of roses is up 54%, diamonds are 15% more expensive, and chocolates are up 9% from last year.”
Americans spend a lot of money for holidays, especially around Christmas season on gifts and decorations. However, Valentine’s day is another popular holiday for gifts. The average spending per person in 2022 is $175.41, according to WalletHub.
Of the money spent, men spend about twice as much as women. The majority of this spending is on popular Valentine items such as jewelry, flowers and candy. Giving gifts this holiday has become a social norm and over 70% say that a gift is important to them for Valentine’s Day.
People also have been shown to give their pets gifts as well. According to Good Housekeeping, “around 27.6 million American households gave Valentine’s Day presents to their pet dogs in 2020, and more than 17.1 million picked up gifts for their cats.” This led to about $751.3 million being spent solely on animals.
The popularity of Valentines has grown over the past few years in response to the coronavirus. 78% of Americans feel that it is important to celebrate Valentine’s day this year given the state of the pandemic.
Gifts are given to show how much people appreciate and love one another. However, there are some gifts that are unwanted for Valentine’s Day and may send the wrong message to a loved one. For example work tools, gym memberships and stuffed animals were ranked unwanted for Valentines.
There is some risk when giving gifts. According to NBC, “If you’re in the long-term comfort zone, the wrong gift can signal neglect or that you don’t know your partner as well as you should.” The wrong gift can even be seen as an insult or cause of break-up. Instead of buying a risky gift, statistics have shown that cash can be a great gift.
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