Italians will spend 3.2 billion euros for Christmas dinner: 300 million more than last year and 500 million more than pre-Covid Christmas. The surge in spending is determined, however, not by greater consumption, but by the generalized increases in prices, wages and employment in the year, 2024, which will be remembered as that of the historic employment boom. This is what emerges from the survey by the Confcooperative Study Center in which it is noted that the thirteenths rise from 49 billion last year to 51.3 billion this year thanks to the better trend in employment, the lower impact of the CIG, but the wages and spending capacity is eroded by inflation. «The trend says that personal expenses prevail and selfishness, prudence and prudence dominate. The Italy of discontent is a discordant note – the report underlines – because the gap between those who can spend continues to widen, while the difficulties of the middle class emerge and those who slip into poverty. We have 1 Italian out of 3 who will go on holiday, but the army of the absolute and relative poor is around 10 million people.” A country marked by selfishness, economic difficulties and polarization of inequalities, from discomfort to discontent the differences are becoming more acute: the Italy of discontent – it is noted – is marked by the polarization of positions between those who make it and those who have problems with spending fundamentals.
Shopping at the table: for the dinner, Italian bubbles, preferred to those from beyond the Alps, confirm themselves as the inevitable superstars of dinners with 60 million corks ready to pop from bottles of Made in Italy sparkling wine and prosecco. For the Christmas menu, tradition is in pole position on the plate: clams and seafood for the first courses (230 million euros, the blue crab effect weighing on seafood which has decimated crops especially in the upper Adriatic. Fish for main courses (525 million euros); meat, cured meats and eggs (540 million euros); wines, sparkling wines and prosecco (455 million euros); Pasta, bread, flour and oil (365 million euros) will be missing from the platter of fresh and matured Italian cheeses (195 million). regional (455 million euros). More than 1 in 3 Italians are traveling for Christmas. For Christmas there will be 18.5 million packing their bags, 1 in 4 of them will leave for the entire duration. of the holidays. Italy wins, with its mountains, cities of art, spa destinations. And for those who choose low cost holidays, the homes of friends and relatives win. Only the wealthiest will celebrate with trips to exotic destinations or to the capitals of the great classics, from central and northern Europe to the States.