Americans are searching for holiday shopping at a pace we haven't seen in the past three years. A Gourmet Gift Baskets analysis of weekly Google Trends data finds that searches for “Holiday shopping” ran 66% higher in September and October 2026 than in the same period last year. But the surge stopped there: the other 13 gift terms with enough volume to measure, from “Gifts for mom” to “Gift ideas,” stayed within 10% of last year. A new consumer survey suggests why. Shoppers aren't short on motivation; they're short on ideas for the right gift.
Key Takeaways
- General holiday shopping interest is higher this fall. The “Holiday shopping” search-interest index averaged 25.9 across the nine weeks of September and October 2026, up 66% from 15.6 in the same weeks of 2025.
- December remains the main gift-search month. Fourteen of the 17 terms reached their September–December peak in a December week in every complete holiday season from 2022 through 2025. “Black Friday deals,” “Cyber Monday deals” and “Holiday shopping” peak around Thanksgiving week instead, and their timing follows the calendar.
- Choosing the right gift is a common challenge. In a separate survey, 87.8% of respondents named at least one type of recipient they find difficult to buy for, and 51.8% named a recipient-related issue as their biggest holiday-shopping challenge. Budget was the leading individual response at 25.2%.
Holiday Shopping Interest Is Higher This Fall
The broad term “Holiday shopping” is running well ahead of last year. Its weekly index averaged 25.9 across September and October 2026, versus 15.6 a year earlier (+66%). It was the only one of the 14 comparable terms to move by more than 7% in either direction.
The increase is not consistent across individual gift categories. Five terms were slightly lower (“Gifts for him,” “Gift ideas,” “Gifts for kids,” “Gifts for men” and “Gifts for women,” down 3.7% to 6.7%), four were essentially flat (“Gifts for her,” “Gifts for grandparents,” “Gifts for mom” and “Handmade gifts”), and four were slightly higher (“Fruit baskets,” “Christmas gifts,” “Holiday gifts” and “Gifts for dad,” up 3.1% to 5.0%). “Black Friday deals,” “Cyber Monday deals,” and “Last-minute gift” are too low-volume to compare week to week, so their year-over-year changes are not reported.
Interestingly, the “Holiday shopping” gain sits on a higher baseline: the weekly index averaged 18.1 across January–August 2026, versus 6.8 in the same months of 2025. Measured against each year’s own January–August average, September–October interest was about 1.4 times baseline in 2026, versus about 2.3 times in both 2025 and 2024, so the seasonal lift itself was smaller this year.
Stronger interest in holiday shopping generally does not necessarily mean shoppers are searching more for every recipient, buying earlier, or spending more.
December Remains the Main Month for Gift Searches
Across the four complete holiday seasons from 2022 through 2025, 14 of the 17 terms reached their September–December peak in a December week every year: Holiday gifts, Christmas gifts, Gift ideas, Gifts for her, Gifts for him, Gifts for women, Gifts for men, Gifts for kids, Gifts for mom, Gifts for dad, Gifts for grandparents, Fruit baskets, Handmade gifts and Last-minute gift. (Weekly data begin in late October 2021, so the 2021 season is incomplete.)
The other three terms follow different schedules:
- Black Friday deals peaked in the week containing Black Friday in all four seasons.
- Cyber Monday deals peaked in the week containing Cyber Monday in all four seasons. That week fell mostly in November in 2022 and 2023 (Cyber Monday was November 28 and 27) and mostly in December in 2024 and 2025 (December 2 and 1), so the difference is calendar-driven.
- Holiday shopping peaked in the Black Friday–Cyber Monday window in all four seasons: in a late-November week in 2022, 2023 and 2025, and in the first week of December in 2024 (by a single index point over the week of November 17)
How this compares with last year’s report. Last year’s analysis, which used weekly data through October 2025, found peaks for Black Friday deals, Cyber Monday deals and Holiday shopping moving earlier by roughly 10–13 days per year. The weekly data available for this update cover only four complete seasons (2022–2025), and they do not show a consistent shift. The Holiday shopping peak came 25, 26, 21 and 29 days before Christmas in 2022 through 2025; Black Friday deals peaked 32, 33, 28 and 29 days before; and Cyber Monday deals 25, 26, 21 and 22 days before. Fitted trends are under two days per year in either direction. The year-to-year differences track the calendar (Thanksgiving fell on November 24 and 23 in 2022 and 2023, and on November 28 and 27 in 2024 and 2025), not a steady move earlier. Differences in the date range pulled and in Google’s sampling may explain why this update does not reproduce last year’s finding; this data cannot resolve that.
When Interest Starts and Peaks, by Keyword
Across the four complete seasons from 2022 through 2025, gift searches almost always peak in December, roughly two weeks before Christmas. What differs by keyword is when interest first takes off.,/p>
- Earliest starter: “Holiday shopping” began its climb about 67 days before Christmas on average (around October 19), well ahead of every other term.
- Early to mid-November: “Gifts for kids” and “Handmade gifts” (about 51 days before Christmas), “Holiday gifts” and “Christmas gifts” (about 50), “Gifts for him,” “Gifts for her” and “Gifts for women” (about 44), and “Gift ideas,” “Gifts for men” and “Gifts for grandparents” (41–43).
- Mid- to late November: “Gifts for dad” and “Black Friday deals” (about 37–38 days), “Gifts for mom” (36) and “Fruit baskets” (27, around November 28).
- December: “Cyber Monday deals” (about 24 days) and “Last-minute gift” (about 8).
- Peaks: Most terms peaked 11–13 days before Christmas. “Gifts for mom,” “Gifts for dad,” “Fruit baskets” and “Last-minute gift” peaked later (4–8 days), while “Black Friday deals” (about 30 days), “Holiday shopping” (25) and “Cyber Monday deals” (24) peaked around Thanksgiving.
The Search for Gifts Is Also a Search for the Right Fit
Search data show when interest rises, but they cannot explain what makes a purchase difficult. Gourmet Gift Baskets’ Holiday Gift-Giving Survey of 1,037 U.S. adults, published in The Hard-to-Buy-For Report, offers a separate view. Asked which part of holiday gift shopping they find most challenging, respondents answered:
Budget was the leading individual response. Combined, the three recipient-related answers (knowing what the recipient would like, shopping for a difficult recipient, and finding something personal) account for 51.8%.
When asked which people are most difficult to buy for (up to three choices), 87.8% of respondents named at least one type of recipient; 12.2% said they do not find anyone especially difficult. “Someone who already seems to have everything” was the most frequently selected, at 28.7%. Children or teenagers followed at 24.6%, with a spouse or romantic partner close behind at 23.4%.
Respondents were more likely to describe themselves as easy to buy for than as difficult: 61.6% said they are somewhat or very easy, and 17.6% said they are somewhat or very difficult. Separately, 70.5% said they had bought (40.6%) or considered buying (29.9%) a holiday gift basket because the recipient was difficult to buy for.
These findings add a human dimension to recipient-specific searches such as “Gifts for kids” and “Gifts for him”: shoppers may know whom they are buying for without knowing what to give. The survey does not, however, link individual respondents’ difficulties to their searches or establish why any keyword rose or fell.
Which States Show the Strongest Holiday Search Interest?
There are substantial differences in relative search interest for the five recipient and idea terms that drive most gift searching: “Gift ideas,” “Gifts for her,” “Gifts for him,” “Gifts for mom” and “Gifts for kids.” The score below is the simple average of a state’s five index values (each indexed 0–100 to that term’s top state), covering the 50 states and Washington, D.C. The data spans October 1, 2020 through November 3, 2026, so this is a full-period ranking, not a 2026-only ranking.
Wyoming ranks first (94.0), followed by New York (90.0), New Jersey (87.6), Pennsylvania (83.8) and Connecticut (80.0).
These scores describe relative search interest, not total searches, purchases, or spending.
Methodology
Search-interest analysis
The time-series analysis uses weekly Google Trends search-interest values (United States) for 17 terms, covering the weeks beginning October 31, 2021 through November 1, 2026. Each term is indexed separately, with 100 marking its own highest week in that period, so values compare a term with itself over time, not one term with another. Weeks run Sunday through Saturday and are dated by their midpoint. Google reports values below 1 as “<1”; these were treated as 0.5. The final, partial week (beginning November 1, 2026) is excluded. Year-over-year comparisons average the nine weeks whose midpoints fall September 1–October 31 in each year; a term is described as roughly unchanged when its average moved by less than 10%. “Black Friday deals,” “Cyber Monday deals” and “Last-minute gift” are not compared because their weekly values are mostly at or near the reporting floor or highly volatile.
The separate regional file contains the same 17 terms for the 50 states and Washington, D.C., covering October 1, 2020 through November 3, 2026. The state ranking uses five of them (“Gift ideas,” “Gifts for her,” “Gifts for him,” “Gifts for mom” and “Gifts for kids”), each indexed to 100 for its own top state and averaged with equal weight. Peaks and start dates are measured within the September 1–December 31 window of the four complete seasons from 2022 through 2025; the weekly data begin on October 31, 2021, so 2021 is incomplete. Interest is counted as starting in the first week of its unbroken rise to the peak, when the index had climbed 20% of the way from the year’s July–August median to the peak. The peak is the week with the highest value, and a “December peak” means that week’s midpoint falls in December. Google Trends figures are sampled and can differ slightly between downloads. Search-interest indices do not measure absolute search volume or completed purchases.
Survey context
Gourmet Gift Baskets commissioned the Holiday Gift-Giving Survey (full results in The Hard-to-Buy-For Report), which PureLinq designed and analyzed. It was fielded September 29–October 7, 2026, and included 1,037 complete responses from U.S. adults; every respondent passed the attention check. Results were not weighted to represent the U.S. adult population. The median respondent age was 50, 26.1% of respondents were 65 or older, and 54.0% identified as women. Survey findings describe respondents’ reported experiences and perceptions, not purchase records or the behavior of the people represented in the search data.