While it’s technically our last winter holiday, for many of us, St. Patrick’s Day is considered the first holiday of spring. Back before “the big flash” (Book of Eli reference, but really, I’m just talking about the the pandemic), St. Patrick’s Day celebrants (hereinafter referred to as partiers) were keen on heading outdoors in the nippy March air for parades, bar crawls, parties, and overall mild to severe debauchery (depending on the day of the week on which St. Patty’s Day fell).
Traditionally, St. Patrick’s Day has been a time to gather for food and drinks, or go out for food and drinks, or to stay home alone with your food and drink. This year, 49 percent of Americans are planning to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, even though it falls in the middle of a workweek and we’re still in the throes of a global pandemic. Not bad, considering last year 57 percent of Americans were planning to celebrate it, and the holiday’s topped out at about 60 percent participation.
St. Patrick’s Day Spending Following Suit with Increased Spending Across All Major Holidays
Per person spending for St. Patty’s Day is expected to be the second highest in recorded history at $40.77 per person (last year was the highest at $42.96. Interestingly enough, St. Patrick’s Day spending is expected to fall in line with pandemic holiday spending, which has been consistently been about the same or higher for the past year.
How People Are Planning to Celebrate St. Patrick's Day This Year Compared to Last Year
This year, fewer people are planning to head outside their homes to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day compared to last year. Instead, celebrants are shifting their spending to make their private St. Patrick’s Day celebrations more festive by increasing their spending on food, decorations, candy, and beverages (and even some small boosts in spending on greeting cards and gifts).
Even if you check out the top subcategory searches for St. Patrick’s Day on Pinterest, you’ll see that none of them have to do with new clothes or making drinks or decorating for parties. No, the top of these Shop Similar recommendations are for things you can do to spruce up the house for St. Patrick’s Day and ideas for family-focused St. Patrick’s Day activities.
This shift from spending on “outside stuff” to spending more money to make indoor celebrations more fun is a trend we’ve seen happening with the Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Easter, back-to-school shopping and just about every major holiday/retail event since last spring.
We put together an infographic on St. Patrick’s Day spending and trends that’ll provide some interesting insights on how people are marking the occasion. As always, you can copy and paste the embed code at the bottom to embed this infographic on your site.