Did Americans Less Donate before Recently Christmas Eves?

An empty plastic bucket

I saw a Santa Claus with his bell in malls, and even several Santa Clauses in big super centers about 10 years ago.

They collected donations from crowd for charity which associate to certain religious groups or institutions.

Children, young and old opened their wallet and put a couple bucks or coins in the plastic bucket.

Some times, I saw the bucket full of moneys, some drops on the floor, and fly around due to winds.

In the last several years, I have noticed the different.

I shopped 3 times to two shopping centers before Christmas eve this year. Santa Claus’s bucket almost empty.

A lonely homeless

Empty bucket make me wonder, Why?

Before answer the question, let’s see amazing facts:

1) 147.8 million Americans shopping before Christmas this year, 2019. More than last year in which 134.3 million Americans went shopping in 2018.

2) Americans donate about US$ 390 billions to charities each years since 3 years ago until recently.

Hence, I believed that Americans did contribute to charities by digital ways:

- credit or debit cards

- gift cards

- any digital ways (bank transfer, pay pals, money transfer services).

It is the main reason why I didn’t see people donate using paper money or coin in recent days, anymore.

Happy holiday and Merry Christmas to you and yours.