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LIFESTYLE

17% Have Finished Their Holiday Shopping

As Christmas nears, more Americans have completed their holiday shopping, but most still have not checked all the names off their list.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that 17% of Adults say they have now finished all of their holiday shopping.  That's up seven points from just over a week ago and 11 points from a couple days before Thanksgiving. Eighty percent (80%) still have shopping to do. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The number who've finished shopping is the same as this time last year but down slightly from the year before.

Sixty-one percent (61%) say they've started their gift shopping, while 36% have not.  This time last year, only 53% had begun their shopping already.

But some Americans must be getting caught up in the holiday season. Eighteen percent (18%) now plan to spend more this year than they did last year. That's up from 13% who felt that way just before Thanksgiving. Fifty -six percent (56%) say they will spend less on gifts this year, while 24% plan to spend about the same.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook. 

The survey of 1,000 Adults nationwide was conducted on December 6-7, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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