SHOPPERS in Oxford will be on Santa’s good list this year after they ranked in the UK’s top 10 most generous Christmas spenders.

City households will spend an average of £702.10 on making their celebrations the best they can be, which is £87.14 more than the national average.

And this year 85 per cent of people in Oxford said they would be spending more than they did last year, although traders remain unconvinced they’ll feel the effect of the city’s generosity.

Simon Kosky, manager of Flaggs gift store on Broad Street, said: “It would be nice, but business is pretty slow at the moment. It may be a bit early, people tend to start shopping the first or second week of December. Last Christmas was average.

“Oxford is quite expensive to shop in anyway, you spend money on parking before you’re even started.

“Tourism is key for us. They are around over Christmas but there’s not so much of a build-up.”

He said present-wise, his products range from about £10, up to £450 for a Harry Potter broomstick.

The survey, done by Travelodge, also predicted that most people in Oxford will buy 14 presents this year, which matches the national figure, with each gift costing £33.21 compared to the UK average of £28.19.

That would go along with £46.01 on decorations and £37.59 on travel, as well as food and drink.

But Daniella Cromwell, manager of Fair Trade at St Michaels gift shop on Cornmarket Street, was also dubious that business would be booming this year.

She said: “It’s obviously not ideal that there is so much building work and road work going on.

“We’ve been a bit concerned as we are not sure how many people will be willing to come in. Last year we did well but it’s always hard to predict these things .”

She said independent shops can do well at Christmas, even with chain stores stealing a lot of trade.

She added: “We are quite a niche shop. Our customers are people who care about what they are buying, people who actually like seeing something different. There’s a market for it.”

Oxford came tenth in the national survey which asked 3,000 adults, in big towns and cities, how much they budget for Christmas.

This included Christmas dinners, which are more highly valued in Oxford too. Households will spend £153.86 on their feast, £13.83 more most people in the UK.

Topping the league of the big festive spenders are people in Liverpool, who will splash out £804.36 this year. Of all the cities and towns across the UK, Glaswegians were the thriftiest, budgeting just £383.12.