Friday, 7th December 2007 at 11:51 am

Spending Christmas with the rich

As you break out the fake Christmas tree and the ornaments that you bought on special at Game last year during their post-Christmas sale, and pinch your pennies to see if you can afford that coveted Barbie doll your daughter has been nagging for all year, we can tell you with great relief that rising fuel prices worldwide won’t affect the holiday spending or the holiday plans of the private jetset.

According to the 2007 holiday spending survey conducted by Elite Traveler (a lifestyle magazine distributed aboard private jets and mega-yachts) and the Prince and Associates market-research group, the super rich, untroubled by the sub-prime mortgage crisis or pretty much anything else, plan to increase their holiday spending over last year by anywhere from 17 to 67% across a broad range of categories.

Of those surveyed, around 270 were the super rich (referred to as the “elite affluent” in the survey) who had a net worth of $10-million or more (and often a great deal more). The remainder were their relatively poor cousins, the “mass affluent,” whose net worth was a measly $1-million to $9.9-million.

So what do they plan to spend their money on this coming holiday season? There is a custom-made, jewel-encrusted saddle for a pony, a $30,000 couture dress for a four-year-old and a $200,000 restored classic Camaro.

More than 60% of the elite affluent will be travelling by private jet this holiday season. Well, of COURSE dahling. Who would EVER fly… *shudders*… COMMERCIAL!
According to the feature, the super rich will spend $152,400 per person on jewellery this year (up 67% from 2006) and $39,300 on electronics (up 53 per cent).

Further expenditures will include $487,900 on yacht charters (up 19%), $86,200 on villa rentals (up 23%), and $31,100 on wines and spirits for entertaining (up 39%).

But, it being Christmas, they’ll also be giving $116,300 to charity (up 23%) and spending $10,200 on gifts and services for their pets.

The huge gap between the elite affluent and the so-called mass affluent is very evident when one sees the considerable restraint the latter plan to exercise in their spending: Apparently they are planning to spend only $995 on their pets, a paltry $4,900 on jewellery, $3,300 on electronics and exactly nothing on yacht charters… Nothing! How barbaric! How DO they expect to get around on the water?

It’s enough for the broke mortals among us to hang ourselves with the tinsel, isn’t it?

Additional reading: How the rich spend Christmas - Globe and Mail.