Forty-three percent of shoppers expect to give consumer electronics as gifts this holiday season — down from 55 percent last year, according to NPD Group’s 2006 holiday survey.

Does that mean a gloomy holiday for U.S. consumer electronics retailers? Not necessarily, according to NPD’s Marshal Cohen.

One reason for the decline is that many of today’s teens and adults already own hot tech gadgets like MP3 players and digital cameras — so they are not asking for them like they did last year.

But prices have fallen enough on these gadgets that those teens and adults may turn around and give one of those tech gifts to a parent, Cohen said.

The other reason the decline isn’t as worrisome is that one very large electronics purchase that consumers will make this holiday season – buying that sleek new flat panel television — doesn’t get captured in the survey’s results.

“When I’m sitting there buying a gift and then I buy a flat-panel for myself, I don’t count that as holiday spending if I’m a consumer,” Cohen said.

The survey found that “tried-and-true” items like clothing, toys, books, music and fragrances will be big sellers again this holiday season — especially in the absence of a new wave of electronics making it on to wish-lists.

And how much to shoppers thing they will spend?

They plan to spend $728 this year on holiday gifts, up from $681 in 2005 and $655 in 2004.

The survey was conducted between Sept. 12-19, and was based on information from 1,823 completed interviews from NPD’s online consumer panel.