Father’s Day started small but is now big business

The final dash is on to grab just the right gift — or experience — for dads and stepdads for Father’s Day this Sunday, June 16. Father’s Day is big business after all.

The National Retail Federation projected about $22.4 billion will be spent celebrating Father’s Day this year, just shy of last year’s $22.9 billion. Those celebrating expect to spend about $190 each on fathers, stepfathers, grandfathers, husbands, sons, brothers and friends.

From the archives: Saying “Happy Father’s Day” after he’s gone

That economic boost is all thanks to a woman — Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Wash., who wanted to honor her father, a single dad of six, according to the Library of Congress.

In 1909, Dodd sat in a Spokane church listening to a sermon about Mother’s Day.

“And it bugged her,” Dodd’s great-granddaughter, Betsy Roddy, told The Associated Press in 2017. “She thought, ‘Well, why isn’t there a Father’s Day?’”

William Jackson Smart, a farmer, raised Dodd and her five younger brothers, after their mother died in childbirth in 1898.

Dodd spent the next 62 years lobbying everyone from presidents to retailers for an official Father’s Day as the unofficial celebration grew.

Finally in 1972, President Richard Nixon declared the third Sunday of June a federal holiday honoring dads. Dodd died six years later at age 96.

Father’s Day has continued to grow by leaps, bounds and neckties.

The U.S. has about 72 million fathers. About 40% — 29 million — are also grandfathers, according to the Census Bureau. And about 75% of their children plan to celebrate their dads and father figures, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation.

Neckties have more competition than ever. According to the survey, the top gifts are about evenly split between greeting cards, clothes and outings.

Other fun dad facts according to the U.S. Census Bureau:

• About 2 million, or 20%, of dads living with kids under 18 are single dads.
• There are 231,000 stay-at-home dads.
• About 66% of first-time dads between 2016-20 took parental leave, compared with 14% of new dads in 1980 or earlier.