Several recent reports indicate Americans spent more on holiday purchases in 2024, but had to take on debt in order to do so.

Mastercard released its preliminary “Spending Pulse” report Thursday, which excludes car purchases. Mastercard found retail sales increased by 3.8% compared to last year, including sales from November through Christmas Eve.

In the meantime, LendingTree issued a report showing that 36% of Americans took on debt this holiday season. The average American who went into debt took on an average of $1,181. Also, of those who used debt for holiday purchases, 42% said they used credit that has an interest rate of 20% or higher.

The survey also showed that 60% said that they are only going to be making minimum payments, while 40% said that they are going to be paying that debt off over the course of five months or longer. The data showed one clear thing: people wanted to spoil the people that they love. Gifts are things that many people don't even consider discretionary spending.

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“Inflation is still a big deal in this country, and it’s having a huge impact on people’s finances, including their holiday spending,” Matt Schulz, LendingTree chief credit analyst, said. “If you were to only buy the same things you bought last Christmas, you’d likely have to spend more this year thanks to inflation. For many Americans, that means you either have to cut back on gifts or take on more debt. While people make lots of sacrifices to deal with higher prices, many may not want to sacrifice at the holidays, so debts continue to rise.”

They consider it mandatory spending as it's something that is baked into tradition every single year. Despite stubbornly high prices, people still feel like they have the money to spend.

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Earlier this month, a poll showed that 49% of parents will go into debt to buy Christmas gifts this holiday season, according to data from CouponBirds.

The poll of 2,500 American adults showed that parents are planning to spend, on average, $461 on Christmas gifts per child this year. The poll indicated that 9% of parents will spend at least $1,000 per child this season, with a mere 4% spending less than $100 per child.