The gift of Christmas is giving. Nordregio wraps up the year by gifting you a map showing which Nordic country is most into the Christmas spirit of giving. Which country spares no expense? Which takes a more frugal approach? Find out with the Nordregio Christmas map 2025!
By using national statistics from each country’s statistical office, Nordregio visualises how much Nordic households spend on Christmas gifts, measured as a percentage of average monthly disposable income.
While the absolute spending levels differ between countries, this indicator focuses on relative effort: how big a slice of the monthly income is turned into gifts.
Map shows household spending on Christmas gifts as a percentage of average monthly disposable income. Income numbers are from 2023, expenditure numbers from 2022.
Norway spends most on Christmas gifts, Denmark least
Norway spends the most on Christmas gifts out of all the Nordic countries, both in absolute numbers and in terms of disposable income. 10.95 percent of a Norwegians disposable income in December are spent on Christmas gifts.
Sweden comes in second on 8.57 percent, followed by Finland at 8.25 percent and Iceland at 7.91 percent.
Despite having the highest disposable income, Denmark spends the least on Christmas gifts, 7.56 percent. This highlights that higher incomes do not necessarily lead to higher proportional spending on Christmas gifts.
While Christmas shopping is established traditions in all these countries, some of the differences could be explained by slightly lower prices and more restrained consumption norms, with Sweden being one such example, says Madelene Sonesson, cartographer and GIS-analyst at Nordregio.
The map also shows regional and municipal level Christmas gift spending.
Higher-income areas spend the most in nominal terms but the least relative to income. And remote and lower-income regions devote a much larger share of their income to Christmas gifts, mainly driven by cultural expectations, higher prices, and fewer retail alternatives, says Madelene Sonesson.
Faroe Island, Greenland and Åland
Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland all have high proportions of income spent on Christmas gifts. They are, however, special cases. There are no numbers specific for these territories. Gift-spending levels are instead estimated by adjusting Danish and Finnish expenditure respectively. Their high expenditure numbers are also affected by price-level differences for consumer goods, which for example tend to be higher in the North Atlantic territories, meaning that similar purchasing patterns translate into a larger share of income being allocated to gift spending.
Household spending on Christmas gifts in the Nordic countries
