Consumers have grown more cautious about their Christmas spending plans as the key trading period kicks in, according to an exclusive survey available on retail-week.com.

The survey found growing caution about Christmas spending,with a greater proportion of respondents agreeing that they planned to buy presents for fewer people and planned to buy fewer expensive gifts than during last year’s holiday season.

The research shows that consumers plan to spend similar amounts on food and drink and on gifts for close family as they did last year, but could cut back on decorations and gifts for friends, colleagues and other family members.

However, the GfK NOP Christmas 2008 study, which is carried out each week, found consumers surveyed more recently are expecting to spend more this Christmas than those who responded to the survey earlier in the year.

Results of the survey, which will be updated every two weeks until the week before Christmas, will be available exclusively on retail-week.com.

In addition to a summary of recent research on consumer confidence, the survey includes data on:

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