A RBC holiday outlook suggests Canadians may be a little more frugal this festive season.

The RBC Canadian Consumer Outlook found that while the majority of Canadians appear to be in a gift-giving mood, they plan on spending less over the holidays than they did last year.

The survey suggests Canadians who celebrate year-end festivities will spend $1,182 on gifts, decorations, entertaining and travel, a figure which is down six per cent from last year's anticipated amount.

The bank says this season's holiday spending plans appear to be more in line with Canadians' 2010 holiday purchasing plans. The survey suggests shoppers who plan on buying gifts are likely to shell out $629 on their purchases, down from the $640 anticipated last year.

RBC also suggests Canadians plan to cut their spending on holiday expenses other than gifts by 10 per cent from last year.

``It's clear that Canadians are conscious of their finances and are taking a closer look at what they can afford this holiday season,'' said Chris McEachern, financial planning role strategist, RBC Financial Planning.

The results of the RBC survey released Thursday stand in contrast to findings from some other analysts, who believe Canadians will be more generous with their finances over the holidays this year.

It found 56 per cent of respondents plan to fund their festivities with their savings, while 24 per cent intend to use credit cards. Meanwhile, 23 per cent of those surveyed say they haven't thought about how they'll pay for the holiday season.

RBC suggests that a little financial preparation for the holidays is likely to go a long way.

The online survey was conducted by Ipsos Reid and involved 3,375 Canadians across the country between Oct. 1 to Oct. 10. The poll is accurate to within plus or minus 1.9 percentage points of the entire Canadian population.

(The Canadian Press)