Striving4Zen

Demographically speaking, Jewish families are not well designed for heavy holiday spending. UJC found that Jews are more likely to be elderly and childless than the general population. In 2000-2001, 19 percent of Jews in the United States were over 65, compared with 12 percent of the whole population. Nine percent of Jews were 75 or over, compared with 6 percent of the total U.S. population. Not big holiday shoppers.

What's more, Jews, who are less likely to be married, haven't been very good at being fruitful and multiplying. "In all childbearing age groups, Jewish women have given birth to fewer children than U.S. women," the population survey notes. Among Jews, children were only 20 percent of the population, compared with 26 percent of the United States at large.