Fifty-two percent (52%) of Americans have started their holiday shopping, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports holiday shopping survey. One-out-of-eight Americans (12%) did their first shopping of the season during the week of Thanksgiving.

In our pre-Thanksgiving survey, just 40% had started their shopping.

A related survey found that most Americans hope to hear “Merry Christmas” in the stores this year rather than “Happy Holidays.”

As often happens, Americans enter the shopping season with plans for fiscal prudence. But, this year—as in many others—that intention disappears once the shopping begins. Before the Thanksgiving shopping blitz, 51% of Americans said they would spend less on gifts this year. Now, that number has fallen to 44%.

The percentage of those who plan to spend more this year has increased from 18% to 22%. Twenty-nine percent (29%) say they plan to spend the same amount as they did last year.

The National Retail Federation estimated that 137 million Americans would hit the sales immediately after Thanksgiving to kick off the holiday shopping season. According to ShopperTrak, early retail estimates put spending on Black Friday alone at $8.96 billion, a 6% increase over last year.

While the percentage of those who say their shopping is in progress has increased, only 9% report having completely finished making their holiday purchases. That’s up from 7% before Thanksgiving. Eighty-seven percent (87%) still have more work to do.

Sixty-four percent (64%) say they plan to pick out specific items for those on their gift lists rather than purchase gift cards (18%.) Those numbers are virtually unchanged from the previous survey.

Forty-eight percent (48%) report enjoying the holiday shopping experience while 36% consider it an unpleasant experience. Thirteen percent (13%) place it somewhere in between. Again, these numbers have experienced little change from November’s earlier survey.

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