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Easter spending to hit $16.4 billion in 2016

Posted at 11:42 AM, Mar 23, 2016
and last updated 2016-03-23 11:42:48-04

If you’re planning to rack up a big bill at the grocery store this week stocking up for Easter dinner necessities, you aren’t alone.

The National Retail Federation said Wednesday that more than 85 percent of those celebrating Easter on Sunday will be buying items for a family meal, spending more than $5.3 billion.

That doesn’t include everything going in your child’s Easter basket. Another $2.2 billion will be spent on jelly beans, chocolate bunnies, Peeps and other traditional Easter candy.

The NRF said consumers will also spend $2.4 billion on gifts, $1.1 billion on flowers, $998 million on decorations and $695 million on greeting cards.

All told, the average person celebrating Easter will spend $140.62, slightly up from the $137.46 they spent in 2015. Total Easter sales will hit $16.4 billion. 

The personal finance website WalletHub analyzed which cities are the best ones for an Easter celebration, looking at metrics including average price of eggs, number of Christians, organized egg hunts and number of candy stores.

Pittsburgh topped the list, due in part to its percentage of churches per capita and number of residents who practice Christianity.

Baltimore, however, was one of the cities listed as having the most egg hunts.

See the full map below. 

Source: WalletHub