On Thursday, December 21, more than a million Americans bought their last Christmas gift of 2006. Hundreds of thousands more finally got around to starting their shopping.

The final Rasmussen Reports holiday shopping poll of the season found that 53% of Americans have finished shopping heading into the final weekend before Christmas. That’s up from 48% the day before and 23% a week ago. Forty-two percent (42%) of all adults say they still have shopping left to do this weekend while 5% are not sure.

On Friday morning, only 17% of American adults have not started shopping. That’s down from 20% on Thursday morning and 28% a week ago. Men are far more likely than women to have waited this long without buying a holiday gift.

The latest telephone survey of 1,000 adults was conducted December 20-21, 2006.

Thirty percent (30%) now say that they will spend more this year than last on their gift shopping. Perhaps reality is setting in for late shoppers…the number who say they’ll spend more is up from 27% yesterday and 21% a week ago.

Three percent (3%) say they did all their holiday shopping online while another 15% did at least half their shopping by clicking at an online store. Just over half (55%) of all Americans say that they didn’t buy any Christmas gifts online. Not surprisingly, younger Americans were more likely than their elders to engage in e-shopping.

Seventy-one percent (71%) of Americans consider Christmas one of the nation’s most important holidays. Nearly nine-out-of-ten Americans celebrate Christmas and most do so as a religious holiday. Sixty-five percent (65%) would like more emphasis placed on the birth of Jesus during the holiday season and most say they will attend Church on Christmas Eve or Christmas.

The latest survey finds that 46% consider the Christmas season joyful while 36% consider it stressful. Yesterday, those figures were 47% and 34% respectively. Earlier in the year, 51% said they felt the season was joyful.