Bloomberg (12/18/14) Victoria Stilwell

U.S. households are coming into extra money this holiday season due to growing employment, wage increases, and falling gas prices. The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index reached 41.7 during the period that ended Dec. 14, the highest since mid-November 2007. There also have been fewer layoffs and a brightening economic outlook.

“We’re on a pretty good path,” says Sarah House, an economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC. “Consumers are definitely feeling the effects of the stronger job growth that we’ve seen over the past year, and the drop in gas prices is obviously a big tailwind.”