Think of each gift card you find on your desk, in your wallet or in your kitchen "junk" drawer as a ghost of a particular Christmas past. This one's from my co-worker who rushed into the holiday party late carrying a plastic Walgreens bag! Oh, this one's from Uncle Fred, who joked that I shouldn't spend it all in the same place!
Such ghosts hover in the recesses of more homes and pockets than you might imagine.
According to a 2023 Christmas report from The Associated Press, almost half the U.S. (47% of us to be exact) had at least one unspent voucher or gift card, and the unspent money on those cards was believed to total $23 billion. That's enough to buy each of the 334.9 million people in the U.S. a Secret Santa gift that costs $68.67.
This is a preview of Jarvis DeBerry's latest article. Read the full column here.
