The statistics aren’t available yet, but the questions proliferate: After two years of “anemic” spending in December, will the retail market rebound? Will Americans prop up an ailing economy by spending lots of money on Christmas presents?

Wherever the numbers end up, women will make the majority of the decisions surrounding purchases throughout December. As Belinda Luscombe recently reported in Time, “[Women] make 85% of the buying decisions or are the chief purchasing officers of their households.” Further, as women control more than 50 percent of private wealth in America, and as women — in certain age groups and metropolitan centers — begin to outearn men (see “The Growing Buying Power of Women“), Luscombe comments, “The more money women earn, the exponentially more money they manage. And women are increasingly making the calls where men have traditionally held sway.”

Questions about how and where we spend money are relevant at all times. But December marks a time when we spend money in disproportionate amounts compared with the other eleven months of the year. As Christmas approaches, how should Christian women think about spending money on gifts, and food, and decorations? 

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