Holiday shoppers spent much more than expected on gifts

Let's flash back to the beginning of December. The Consumer Reports National Research Center polled more than 1,000 randomly-selected consumers to find out how much they planned to spend on gifts this holiday season. The answer: $699 on average, about $65 less than they planned to spend in the prior two years.

Now, however we have actual totals and they are -- you guessed it -- substantially higher. The average shopper spent $811 – or 16% more than they'd planned – on gifts alone. The half of the population surveyed that paid with credit cards reported spending another $85 more, on average, raising their total to $896. And nearly one-fifth couldn't resist bringing home a little (or not so little) something for themselves.