Passover is a holiday of gift-giving, at least in practice, as far as Israelis are concerned. And in order to know what presents we buy and how much we spend on them, TheMarker conducted a survey in conjunction with Machon Karet.
The results show 75% of Israelis buy gifts for the holiday - but it turns out that 85% of women buy gifts but only 65% of men.
The survey interviewed 503 respondents representing a sample of the entire population at the beginning of the week before Passover.
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A quick trip to the nearest mall will reveal huge crowds searching for original, creative presents for friends and family. They may be useful, frivolous or just a treat. But the question we asked was what was the average Israeli looking for, what did he or she find, and how much did he or she spend?
The most popular gift category was household goods, with 54% saying they bought such items as gifts. Twenty-two percent bought perfumes; 20% said they bought gift baskets, usually filled with wine, food and candy; 19% bought fashion accessories and clothing; and 16% cited purchases of cosmetics for Passover presents.
Respondents could give more than one answer - if they bought more than one gift, so the totals do not add up to 100%.
Even men find household goods to be the most popular, though only 40% of men said they bought such items, compared to 65% of the women.
The differences between men and women were clear, with the number two purchase among women being perfume, while with men it was gift baskets.
Breaking the gift choices down by age also gave some interesting results. Age groups under 60 still chose household items as first choice and perfume as second, but those over 60 years old chose gift baskets as second. According to the staff conducting the survey, it is likely that one of the main considerations for those over 60 buying gifts is, "What is good for the grandchildren?" The answer seems to be a wide variety of sweets, which they seem to feel can never go wrong.
Surprisingly, the People of the Book do not buy very many books as holiday gifts. Only 2% said they did so.
Despite the popular, but possibly mistaken, image of women as being quicker to open their purses and buy, the survey showed men actually spend more on holiday presents: NIS 750 versus NIS 570 on holiday gifts.
In general, the average Israeli spends NIS 650 on holiday gifts in total, with the median in the NIS 500 range.
In addition, most Israelis leave their shopping for the last minute. It is therefore no surprise that during the week before the holiday, and especially the day before, malls and stores are packed and lines are long.
Only 5% do their gift shopping a month before, with 26% doing so two weeks before the holiday.
But of course most Israelis, two-thirds, wait until the last week, and 37% wait till almost the last minute.
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