As moms navigate throughout the year, the Christmas holidays (45%) are the busiest times for most of them, followed by Summer when kids are off from school (26%) and Back to School (21%). This is the same overall pattern as 2008, but Christmas is expected to be slightly more stressful in 2009, while Summer has been less stressful, perhaps because Moms are working less

• African American Moms stand out as more likely to find Back to School (37%) as the busiest time, even more so than Christmas (33%)
• English Speaking Hispanic Moms stand out as more likely to find Summer (37%) very busy, on par with Christmas (35%)
• Interestingly, there are no meaningful differences on busiest time of the year by Mom‟s working status, the differences are more according to cultural group

Holiday Shopping Trends

Gifts Vary by Kids’ Age Groups – Teens Top Spending

Overall, moms will spend $672 on holiday gifts this year, consistent with last year’s spending levels. The hot gifts for young children are toys (51%), clothing (29%), books (26%), movies (23%) and video games (8%). Top gift choices for children aged 7 to 12 are video games (30%), toys (29%), books/clothing (tied at 28%), movies (25%) and music (20%). Popular gifts for teens are music/music electronics (28%), clothing (27%), gift cards (23%), beauty products/video games (21%), and movies (19%). Compared to the total sample of moms, moms of teens plan to spend the most on holiday gifts.

Big ticket electronic product like computers and cell phones will likely see a decrease in holiday sales this year. Of moms who plan to buy a gift for 7-12 year olds, 15% fewer will buy computers this year, while 5% fewer moms plan to buy computers for teenagers.

Where Mom Will Shop

The majority of Moms plan to shop at mass merchandisers/super centers for the holidays (85%), although that is down 2 percent from 2008. Anticipated holiday shopping this year has increased significantly for department stores (up 10% to 47% in 2009) and electronics stores (up 13% to 41% in 2009). Of all retailers, shoe stores seem to be taking the hardest hit in 2009 – down 8 percent versus last year.

Moms with higher household income ($75,000+) plan to shop at a wider variety of retailers, including department, specialty clothing, club and sporting goods stores, while those with lower incomes skew to dollar stores. Compared to other ethnic groups, English speaking Hispanic moms are more likely to shop at electronics stores, while African American moms are more likely to hit dollar and shoe stores.

Buying Online Still Part of the Plan

Consistent with last year, most moms will do a lot of their shopping online this year. Sixteen percent of Moms plan to do 50 percent or more of their holiday shopping online. Moms with higher education and higher household income are consistently planning to do more of their shopping online than other moms. Toys (41%), clothing/clothing accessories (38%) and music/movies (34%) are the top three items Moms plan to buy online for the 2009 holidays.