Shoppers spend 20 days buying festive gifts

Over 2,000 people in the county were surveyed by British Land, the co-owner of Whiteley Shopping Centre, with the average adult spending £216 on Christmas presents and 43 per cent of shoppers already picked up their festive gifts in August or even before.

In total in Hampshire £42 million is spent by families with residents admitting that they spend more time choosing a present for their mum than their dad.

Centre manager at Whiteley Mia Gordon said: ‘Christmas is an extremely important time of year for our shoppers, with an incredible amount of effort and planning going towards making it perfect.

‘With our research finding that over seven in ten shoppers will be doing their present buying in store this year, we’ll be doing all we can to provide our visitors with everything they need for their families this Christmas.’