After a rocky economic recovery from the pandemic, Americans of all ages are looking to spend, and buy themselves some holiday cheer this season.  A new report from Bankrate spotlights that 57% of holiday shoppers are “planning to spend money to treat themselves this holiday season,” and Millennials are leading the way.

This closely matches previous analyses, which back up findings that during such a stressful time, Americans want to buy gifts for their loved ones and themselves even if it means entering into debt, with younger Americans the most willing to rack up credit card usage.

The findings, published today, show a wide range of Americans, based on criteria ranging from age to income to geography, are planning on spending on themselves this year. This is despite inflation and high energy prices negatively affecting Americans.

Sixty-three percent of Millennials (ages 25-40) are willing to buy holiday gifts for themselves, closely followed by 61% of Gen Z shoppers (ages 18-24). Gen X shoppers (ages 41-56) and Baby Boomers (ages 57-75) are less likely as their younger counterparts to spend on themselves, but the levels are still notable.

The willingness to spend more freely on holiday gifts is high across all income levels as well, with the report mentioning that “55% of households earning less than $50,000 annually, 61% of households earning between $50,000 and $99,999 annually, and 60% of households earning over $100,000 annually, are all likely to spend on themselves during the holidays.”

By geographic region, Westerners are most likely to spend on themselves this season (63%). Midwesterners are the region least likely to spend money on buying gifts for themselves this holiday season (51%).

‘Consumer Spending Powers Growth’

Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Creditcards.com and Bankrate.com, tells Newsmax Finance why spending in 2021, the second year of the pandemic, is surprisingly robust.

“I expect a double-digit gain in retail sales this year,” Rossman says. “We’ve seen tremendous strength in retail sales this year. October retail sales were up 14.8% YoY [year over year], as reported by the [U.S.] Census. Consumer spending powers growth, so these stats are important bellwethers.”

Rossman additionally that e-commerce continues to be important, but is slowly being overcome by in-person “brick-and-mortar” purchases. “Sixty-two percent of holiday shoppers will make most of their purchases online this year, down from 71% last year,” he says, a possible sign that shoppers are becoming more comfortable shopping in-person during the era of COVID.

Finally, Rossman mentions there is a very high level of pent-up demand, which is impacting the holiday season and the wider economy. “People just continue to buy stuff. We’ve seen retail sales grow by double digits every month since March.” Rossman believes it is the sky-high demand, not shortages, that are causing the supply chain disruption, pointing to how Americans are “still sitting on more than $2 trillion in excess savings,” per Bloomberg.

‘Exceed Our Initial Projections’

In addition to Rossman, other economists paint a stronger than expected picture of holiday sales this season. National Retail Federation (NRF) Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz tells Small Business Trends that the data is encouraging, noting, “With the momentum we’ve seen so far likely to continue, it seems probable we will exceed our initial projections,” echoing Rossman in that the spending season is robust, filled with high levels of demand and strong sales by holiday shoppers.

That is something all Americans can be merry about.