Where has Christmas gone?

Retailers all over the UK are launching panic sales right now as they try and kick start the Christmas that hasn’t come yet. So how bad is the situation? Where is Christmas at right now? As with Google’s Influenza Tracker, I believe Google Insights can help!

Let’s look at UK searches for the term “Christmas Gifts”, comparing 2007 to 2008:

It’s clear that Christmas is trailing behind 2007 this year – in fact where “Christmas gifts” searches were at 66% of their peak this time last year, they are at 56% of that same peak this year. That leaves us a good 15% down YoY. So how does the US compare?

While the gap between this year and last year doesn’t seem as pronounced as in the UK, the US was at 69% of its peak last year, while this year its only at 56% of that peak. That’s almost 19% down.

So what will Christmas look like this year? That has to be anyone’s guess – will it be bigger, faster and shorter, or will it just fail to reach the heights of last year and fall back down far too quickly? Certainly retailers will be hoping for former.