PITTSFIELD — Michelle and Sam Rachiele of Pittsfield just aren’t feeling the Christmas spirit this year.

Going Christmas shopping — historically one of their favorite activities between Thanksgiving and Christmas — has lost its joy this year.

What changed their experience? Prices.

“Everything right now is ridiculously expensive,” Michelle Rachiele said. “I just bought a basket for my son's girlfriend. Last year, it probably would have cost us $8 and this year I'm spending $15 — a simple wicker basket.”

They’ve noticed that their friends and others are also feeling the pinch.

“We generally like people watching and seeing everybody out shopping,” she said. “There are certain couples that we run into basically only at Christmas time, and it's a running joke, and we enjoy that. We love the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season. And this year, it was just a grind. It just was like a job.”

On Sunday, they were at TJ Maxx picking up last-minute items, and while they don’t have a budget per se for their Christmas list, they have cut down on the number of items they plan to buy — both for their two children and especially for each other. It’ll just be stocking stuffers this year.

In a year of rising prices, the Rachieles aren’t the only ones making careful choices around their Christmas lists. Other shoppers told The Eagle they have noticed and are shifting their priorities. A recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll also found that the majority of Americans have seen higher prices for groceries, electricity and holiday gifts.

However, the overall amount spent on holiday gifts is expected to be similar to last year. According to the National Retail Federation's annual consumer survey, consumers plan to spend $890.49 per person on average this year on holiday gifts, food, decorations and other seasonal items. The amount is the second-highest in the survey’s 23-year history and falls only 1.3 percent less than last year’s record of $901.99.

Robyn Chojnowski is concerned about people who are struggling now.

Robyn Chojnowski, who buys her staples at Aldi because of the discounted prices there, was shopping for holiday meals on Sunday. She’d gone to another store looking for decorated sugar cookies.

“There's one particular Christmas cookie I used to be able to get for, like $1 a bag,” she said. “It used to be very cheap, and now it's like over $3 a bag for these cookies that used to be very inexpensive, and it makes me hesitate to buy them.”

Chojnowski did buy them, considering it a splurge, though she has a full-time job and a teaching job on the side.

A couple months ago, she took a day to volunteer at Pittsfield Community Food Pantry at South Congregational Church.

“I was blown away by the number of people that were there, and I even recognized people I knew were retirees, people [who] had been co-workers, even friends,” she said. “And I didn't realize how they were struggling to afford food.”

Chojnowski’s mother regularly volunteers at St. Stephen’s Table and tracks the number of people walking in for a free meal, “and the numbers are really getting up there.”

Rebecca Clark’s circumstances changed this year. She’s recently become a single mother of two children, 10 and 7, having left a relationship with their father.

While she’s got a full-time job, she’s faced some tough choices.

“Do I want to pay my car payment, or do I want to have food in the house?” she said. “For the kids, this Christmas is not going to be great, but it'll be, hopefully, good.”

She’s trying to stretch her groceries by making two or three meals out of a single rotisserie chicken — with a chicken dinner one night and chicken soup the next.

She said she’s fortunate her children have reasonable requests for Christmas.

“My kids are great,” she said. “They ask for things they need, not really want.”

Chris Clark has been donating his children's hand-me-downs to help families in Pittsfield.

Chris Clark was out shopping for organizational supplies at Walmart on Sunday.

He and his wife, Renee Clark, had finished all of the gift shopping two weeks ago, with only the Christmas meal to shop for.

While Clark is aware that he’s in a more fortunate position than many students at Herberg Middle School, where he works, he still did more comparison shopping for his two children’s Christmas gifts than he’s done in the past — with the increasing price of groceries, electricity and everything else.

“Food certainly has, I won't say skyrocketed, but definitely has gone up in the last few months,” he said. “We have a family of four. Certainly, $100 or $200 doesn't stretch nearly as far as it did six, eight months ago. Meat especially just seems to be kind of ridiculous. Just in general, it just seems everything's gone up 20 percent in the last probably five or six months.”

He’s still looking forward to hosting a Christmas dinner with extended family at his home.

“It’s probably going to feel a little bit more of a gut punch than prior years,” he said.

According to the most recent data available at the Economic Research Service of the USDA, "The all-items Consumer Price Index, a measure of economy-wide inflation, increased 0.3 percent from July 2025 to August 2025 and was up 2.9 percent from August 2024.

"Food prices rose faster than overall inflation," the USDA reported.

According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, electricity prices have also gone up nationwide this year. It reported that, according to the Consumer Price Index, electricity prices rose 5.1 percent between September 2024 and September 2025 — outpacing the overall 3 percent inflation rate for goods and services.

“That 5.1% number reflects broad nationwide impact,” the Bipartisan Policy Center reported.

Amy Butterworth is being very careful with her Christmas list.

Amy Butterworth and her husband, Brian, live in West Stockbridge and are both recently retired.

“I'm concerned about Medicare being slashed, and concerned if we need medication in the future, that being unaffordable,” she said. “I worry about our children, who are in their early 30s, and I worry about our nation of people who are underserved and who have food insecurities, etc. I feel okay, but I think about all those other people, and there are plenty of them who are suffering and can't afford the basic necessities.”

Butterworth was shopping yesterday for a specific list of items.

“Gone are the days of buying gifts that have a 50/50 chance of ending up in the trash,” she said. “We only buy what somebody wants or needs.”

That’s different than in past years, Butterworth said.

“I’m not buying anything frivolous at all,” she said. “And their stockings are not quite as stuffed as years past.”

Butterworth, whose daughter and her husband live in San Francisco, and whose son lives in Great Barrington, said there’s only one gift she really needs on Christmas.

“Having all well my children under my roof, like any other mother, is the best Christmas gift ever,” she said. “And I truly mean it.”

Robyn Chojnowski's son, Bryan Chojnowski, is an employee of The Berkshire Eagle.