Christmas can be an expensive time of year, but a new survey shows half of Canadians are close to bankruptcy.

The Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada recently released the findings of its 2019 Holiday Spending Survey.

Among the findings were that half of Canadians are severely in debt, and only $200 or less away from bankruptcy at any given time.

As CPA Canada Financial Literacy volunteer Larry Short says, more and more people are not able to keep up.

He says a third of the people surveyed have to go further into debt just to meet their current debt payments.

They’re borrowing to pay mortgages, they’re borrowing to pay for credit cards, and if interest rates change or there’s a major recession the entire country will be in trouble.