It doesn’t matter how much parents plan, the holiday spending could go over the budget they made. It should be easy to control the budget in the holiday season, but the small additions could keep adding up to big expenses without you noticing. Everyone’s last year’s borrowing figures would make that pattern clear.
The spending from last season shows how common it’s to go over the budget, and a simple strategy to keep spending under control is to assign a budget to everyone on the gift list. The process should start before any purchases are made, and it needs no more effort than writing a figure for every name in the list.
What last season’s holiday debt numbers show
A LendingTree survey of 2,032 US adults conducted in mid-December 2025 found that 48% of parents with children under 18 faced the issue of holiday debt. A gift card from Gift-card.com lets the parents who are trying to keep Christmas spending under control choose an amount that fits their budget, removing the need to buy another mug or candle.
The percentage for all consumers was 37%, and the average debt was $1,223. Among those who borrowed, 41% were still paying off debt from the previous 12 months. The survey is based on people’s self-reports and doesn’t show how funds borrowed were used, so gifts are not the complete picture.
If you want to keep Christmas spending on budget, decide how much you can spend on every person before the Christmas shopping starts, and write the number next to the name in November. If a new idea comes up in December, you should add it to a number you already selected.
A gift that can’t grow past the number
A good last minute gift to email someone in the US is a digital card from gift-card.com US, which reaches their inbox within seconds. You don’t need to wrap the gift and there’s no time constraint, so it still works on Christmas Eve.
You could go shopping with a set of markers in mind, then find a backpack and decide to get that too. The extra cost doesn’t look like much until you reach the checkout and see the shipping fee. A gift card avoids this type of overspending as you decide how much to put on it before you buy it.
It also brings up names you could have forgotten. When you figure out on the 23rd of June that the babysitter never got anything, there’s no need to panic, as you can just choose the amount you were going to spend and send the card.
Making the method stick
Write down who you need to buy for and how much you can spend on each person, then buy the gift cards and tick off the names from the list. If you remember someone else in December, you’ll have to make room for them in the budget and won’t need to add another expense. Gifts are only one part of the season, and if your holidays include a trip, then the guide to budget friendly holiday planning for parents could help you with the spending cap for travel.
Parents planning the 2026 holidays on a fixed budget can use the US storefront at gift-card.com to assign one set amount for every name on the list, chosen in advance and delivered by email.
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