Pressure on holiday spending: lower budget for 51% of Romanians, up 17% compared to last year

Reveal Market Resources, study no. 204

 

The annual study conducted by Reveal Marketing Research around the holidays aims to get a clear picture of the evolution of Romanians’ plans for the winter holidays and how they choose to spend their time and organize their budget during this festive period.

 

• 57% of Romanians welcome the winter holidays with positive feelings, a percentage down by 11% compared to December 2024.
• For 51% of Romanians, the budget allocated to the winter holidays in 2025 will be lower than last year, an increase of 17% compared to 2024, when 34% anticipated budget cuts.
• New habits that are gaining ground this year: cooking together as a family (48%), a minimalist Christmas (30%) and less time spent online (19%).

 

57% of Romanians welcome the winter holidays with positive feelings, but the proportion of those who experience negative moods reaches 32%.

According to the results of the Reveal Marketing Research study, Romanians have predominantly positive feelings  while waiting for the winter holidays (57%), the most often mentioned emotions being optimism (11%), contentment (11%) and happiness/joy (9%).

On the other hand, Romanians enter the winter season with less enthusiasm than last year. Positive emotions decrease by 11% compared to December 2024, while negative states (e.g. sadness, stress, anxiety, etc.) register a percentage increase of 9%. Ambivalent emotions remain marginal (11%).

This year too, most Romanians will spend the winter holidays  at home, with family (53%) or visiting  loved ones (29%).  Those who will visit are mostly people aged between 25-34 years old (37%) and between 35-44 years old (35%).

Holiday budgets are under pressure. 51% of Romanians say they will allocate less money for the 2025 holidays.

Romanians estimate that the budget for this year’s holidays will be smaller (51%) or similar (41%) than last year. Only 8% mention a larger budget.

The percentage of those who say they will allocate less money for the 2025 holidays registers a significant increase of 17% compared to last year.

Regarding the organization of expenses, percentage-wise, 31% of the budget allocated to the holidays will go to food and drinks, 21% to gifts and 11% to decorations and festive atmosphere.  Romanians’ prudence can also be seen from the fact that 13% of this year’s budget is allocated to a fund for unexpected expenses.

More than half of Romanians say they will reduce spending on travel (66%), decorations and festive atmosphere (63%), while 55% intend to allocate a smaller budget to gifts.

The most desired Christmas gifts this year are personal care products (17%), clothes (16%) and gadgets (14%).

As for Christmas gifts, most Romanians (36%) are not picky, stating that  it doesn’t matter what gifts they receive.

However, in the top of preferences we find personal care products (17%), especially among young people aged 25 to 34 (25%), clothes (16%) and gadgets (14%).

Next, Romanians choose to buy Christmas gifts from physical stores (37%), preferring them to the detriment of online ones  (21%). Also, 27% of respondents purchased gifts in advance to take advantage of discounts and avoid crowds, the percentage being up by 5% compared to last year.

Winter holidays are increasingly associated with simplicity

          New habits that gain ground during the holidays, Cooking as a family is the most attractive ritual (48%), followed by the organization of a Minimalist Christmas (30%), and Reducing time spent online (19%).

Also, most Romanians say that they would give up without regret during the winter holidays, excessive shopping (47%), parties with a lot of people (36%), very large meals (35%) or numerous visits (30%).

 

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About Reveal Marketing Research

Reveal Marketing Research is a full-service market research company, specialized in marketing research, sociological studies, customer insight, business strategy, market development. With expertise in more than 20 industries, Reveal Marketing Research believes that market research is the basis for the right decisions and brand positioning. Qualitative and quantitative solutions have been helping companies in Romania and other European countries for 17 years.

Reveal Market Resources, study no. 204: Reveal Market Resources is a data hub that includes free publicized studies, with the aim of supporting the marketing and communication market in Romania.

Methodology: The Reveal Marketing Research study was conducted online between 08-15.12.2025 on a representative sample for the universe of people aged 18+, from urban and rural areas, internet users. The sample size was 1017 respondents, and the maximum sampling error is +/-3.1% at a 95% confidence level.