New Trends, More Spending over 2015 Holidays

Americans spent more money during this holiday season, online shopping in particular seeing a big spike.

Holiday shoppers spent 7.9 percent more this year than they did in 2014 according to the MasterCard SpendingPlus report. It tracks spending from credit cards, cash and checks from Black Friday to Christmas Eve.

According to the report, consumers used money saved from cheap gasoline prices for their holiday shopping.

One of the most notable shifts; more people are eating out.

"We saw a double-digit increase on Christmas Day itself," said Sarah Quinlan, senior vice president of market insights for MasterCard Advisors, in an interview. "I guess we didn't go to Grandma's house."

Consumers are also shifting from shopping in retail stores to shopping via their phones and computers. Online shopping up 20 percent this year.

The National Retail Federation projected in October that shoppers would handle 46.1 percent of their holiday shopping online, compared with 44.4 percent a year ago. NRF will release its official holiday retail projections in January.