European households will spend an average of 0.8 percent more on Christmas-related shopping this year as consumers buy more items online.

Average European households expenditure will be 593.11 Euros, with Britons spending the most at the equivalent of 756.44 Euros per household, Kelkoo said in an e-mailed statement. Dutch families will spend the least in Europe at 442.65 Euros, the report said.

Total Christmas sales in Europe will rise to 313 billion Euros, according to the report.
Online sales will probably rise 25 percent to 32 billion Euros, or almost 100 Euros per family, led by households in the U.K., Norway, Sweden, France, Denmark and the Netherlands, according to the study.

While for young Dutch people up to 24 years the proportion is about 90% for using the Internet daily. This leaves other countries behind the Netherlands, while Sweden, Denmark and Luxembourg also rank high.

In the 27 EU countries, 65% of households had access to the internet during the first quarter of 2009, compared with 60% during the first quarter of 2008, and 56% had a broadband internet connection in 2009, compared with 49% in 2008. In the Netherlands, 90% of Dutch households have internet access.

The number of broadband connections is growing steadily, from 49% of households last year to 56% in 2009. The Netherlands top the list with 77% of broadband connections.

Nearly 40% of Europeans are shopping online, 63% of Dutch people shop online. Online shopping is most popular in the UK, 66% purchased goods or services over the Internet.

Booking a holiday online is most popular. Secondly, the purchase of clothing and sports products.

Remarkable is the fact that many high educated people are more online than lower educated. While 87% of the high educated use the internet at least once a week, and only 38% of the less educated.

The study shows we spend more hours staring at screens than doing anything else. But are we losing something profoundly human in all those texts, tweets and chats?

Large investments of the government are to blame. This would help the government to tackle climate change plans for 2020 and limit budget spending, according to a news article

The exact breakdown of costs to businesses and individuals is not known. According to the government, the impact of all its climate change policies – will be to add several hundred euro’s to household bills between now and 2020.