This is the third year the Red Cross has conducted a holiday giving national survey, and this new survey shows that people continue to cut back on their holiday spending in a number of areas. The 2011 survey found that 45 percent were planning to cut back on spending for travel and for holiday decorations, 40 percent were reducing spending on parties, and more than a third (35 percent) were cutting back on gifts. The area seeing the smallest reduction was charitable donations, as about a quarter (26 percent) said they were planning to cut back in this area.