$470.4 Billion: National Retail Federation’s prediction for 2008 holiday sales in the United States.
25-30 Million: Number of live trees sold in the US annually according to the National Christmas Tree Association
More than 2 billion: Number of greeting cards Americans will exchange this year
$431: What the average American will spend on Christmas gifts in 2008
-50%: Percentage change in what the average American will spend on Christmas gifts as compared to 2007
$536 : Amount the average American will spend on Christmas gifts if shopping online
$29 Billion: Amount spent online during the holiday shopping season in 2007
30%: Percentage who will make a holiday purchase on using the Internet
38,000 Miles: The amount of ribbon you’d have if every American used just 2 inches less when wrapping presents. Enough to wrap a bow around the world.
15,000: Number of letters to Santa that have arrived at the post office in the Town of Santa Claus, Ind
100%: Percentage of children who get an answer to their letter, from Santa directly, if they mailed it to Santa Claus, Ind.
Citations
http://www.americanresearchgroup.com/holiday/
http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1990
Photo: GcD^3 pictures
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Down 50% from last year?… Scary…
@Will Paccione
Yep, it will be interesting to see what the actual numbers come in at after the holiday. Anyway you look at it, I think the consumer is tightening.
Happy Holiday,
Matt
The numbers aren’t too surprising considering we’re in a pretty deep recession. But I’m GLAD Christmas spending is going down…people spend way too much at Christmas anyway. Hopefully this trend will continue, even after the recession, and folks will start spending their money on other things, like computer repair
haha. Happy Holidays everyone!
Impressive numbers, from my opinion. The one that made me smile was the number of letters sent to Santa Claus.
It’s nice that somebody really answers those letters, but I guess those kids don;t want an answer to their letter in the shape of another letter, but more likely they expect some presents.
Happy holidays to everyone
Really? More than 2 billion greeting cards exchanged? As in, the tangible ones?
Geez … and I’ve never even sent ONE since 1997! I would have thought that this industry is on a rapid decline already … what with emails, online cards and text messages all around!