WASHINGTON, D.C. – This Christmas Santa delivered a holiday gift: low gas prices. According to GasBuddy, which helps drivers find the cheapest gas prices in the area using crowd-sourced data, the national average of gas is the lowest Christmas day price since the pandemic.
“Certainly, a pretty terrific Christmas when gaged by gas prices,” said Patrick De Haan with GasBuddy. “The lowest gas prices are going into Christmas since the pandemic back in 2020. So, the lowest seasonal gas prices we’ve seen in a long time.”
De Haan said gas prices have fallen in almost every state in the past few weeks. The national average is now at $2.79/ gallon, the lowest Christmas day prices since the pandemic. De Haan said prices continue to drop every year since 2022 when the economy reopened.
“We’ve seen gas prices falling aggressively almost every Christmas, and this year is no exception,” said De Haan. “Why are prices so low now? Well, a few things happening: OPEC started out the year by boosting oil production. They’ve done that now on a near monthly basis; that additional oil supply has pushed prices down considerably. In addition, seasonality. Americans simply don’t drive as much during the colder weather. We’ve made the switch back to cheaper winter gasoline. So lower demand generally equates to lower prices. In addition, the last few weeks refineries have finished seasonal maintenance and that’s again allowed them to restore and raise output, oil prices being relatively low combined with refineries that are processing a very high amount of oil is putting additional gasoline supply in the market, reducing prices. So, a lot of this is simply rebalancing supply and demand and seasonality.”
Gas prices vary from state to state. If you’re traveling, De Haan said to be on the lookout for gas stations.
“Open your eyes as you travel during this holiday season,” said De Haan. “I you’re crossing state lines be sure to check the GasBuddy app or google maps or Waze before you cross those state lines; you may be able to fill up 20 to 40 cents a gallon lower if you pick the right side of the state line to fill up on.”
GasBuddy expects prices will remain relatively low through the holidays into 2026 but prices will go back up next spring.
