96%
Percentage of Americans who celebrate Christmas, 14 percent of whom are non-Christian
Source: FOX News (2004 poll)

90%
Percentage of companies planning to throw holiday parties this year — an increase from 79 percent in 2006 — 38 percent of which are increasing their party budgets
Source: Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. (via Philly News)

44%
Percentage of small-business entrepreneurs planning to throw holiday parties for their staffers this year, down 10 percentage points from 2006
Source: OPEN from American Express Small Business Monitor and the Business Gifting Survey

£790 Million (US$1.61 Billion)
Likely cost to British firms over this year's festive period due to holiday party-related hangovers
Source: Travelodge (via InTheNews.co.uk)

MAIL

1830s
The decade that Englishman John Calcott Horsley popularized the tradition of sending Christmas greeting cards
Source: About.com: Inventors

20 Billion
Number of letters, packages and cards the United States Postal Service expects to deliver between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, with the busiest mailing day to be Dec. 17 and the busiest delivery day Dec. 19
Source: U.S. Postal Service

275+ Million
Number of cards and letters to be mailed on Dec. 17 — more than three times the average daily volume of 82 million — with total mail volume (cards, letters, catalogs, packages, magazines) expected to approach 1 billion
Source: U.S. Postal Service

11.3 Million
Number of packages expected to move through FedEx Express and FedEx Ground global networks on Dec. 17
Source: FedEx

10 Billion
Estimated number of plastic peanuts used in the U.S. each day to protect items in shipment
Source: SmartKarton.com

PLANTAGE & DECOR

1/2
Proportion of U.S. spuds — many of which are consumed in potato latkes during Hanukkah — produced in Idaho and Washington last year
Source: National Agriculture Statistics Service

22,000
Approximate number of farms producing Christmas trees on roughly 447,000 acres
Source: National Christmas Tree Association

$512 Million
The gross earnings of Christmas tree farmers last year, with North Carolina ($134 million) as the top producer
Source: USDA Economic Research Service (via The Associated Press)

$249 Million
Christmas tree sales of the 17 surveyed states in 2006, with Oregon as the top seller (Note: Only growers with at least $10,000 in annual sales were surveyed.
Source: USDA Floriculture and Nursery Corps Yearbook

Credit:Crete Plantations

30,000
Number of multicolored light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, with which this year's 84-foot-tall Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in New York City is covered
Source: CNN

$599.95
Cost of a (currently sold-out) seven-foot upside-down Christmas tree
Source: Hammacher Schlemmer

$199.99
Cost of a pre-decorated Christmas tree (Note: Our laziness has come to this, has it?)
Source: SkyMall

$13.4 Million
Value of U.S. imports of artificial Christmas trees from China between January and June 2007, making China the leading foreign source of the product
Source: Foreign Trade Statistics

$142.6 Million
Value of U.S. imports of Christmas tree ornaments from China between January and June 2007, making China — as with artificial Christmas trees — the leading country of origin for such items.
Source: Foreign Trade Statistics

$1.3 Billion
Value of shipments of candles — many of which are lit during Hanukkah and Kwanzaa celebrations — in 2002 by the nation's manufacturers
Source: 2002 Economic Census

Credit: Vanderbilt University, Virtual School

$161 Million
Value of shipments of candles in 2002 by manufacturers in Texas, which led the country in candle shipments
Source: 2002 Economic Census

1610
Around the time that tinsel, the thin metallic strips typically made of plastic for Christmas decorations, was invented in Germany (Originally, tinsel was made of shredded silver.)
Source: About.com: Inventors

17 Metric Tons
Weight of a menorah built in Jerusalem in 1997, rising more than 60 ft. high and taking up 600 square meters (Each night a rabbi had to be lifted by crane to light the candles.)
Source: The History Channel, History.com

SHOPPING

$923.36
Total planned holiday-related spending this year — an increase of 3.7 percent from 2006 — with consumers planning to spend an average of $816.69 on holiday-related shopping
Source: National Retail Federation's 2007 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey

$469.14
Amount spent by the average person on family gifts this holiday — plus $90.13 on friends, $22.79 on coworkers and $37.45 on others such as clergy, teachers and babysitters
Source: National Retail Federation's 2007 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey

$31.4 Billion
Retail sales by the nation's department stores (including leased departments) in December 2006, representing a 44 percent jump from the previous month (when retail sales, many holiday-related, registered $21.8 billion)
Source: Service Sector Statistics

14%
The proportion of total 2006 sales for department stores (including leased departments) in December (Note: For jewelry stores, the percentage was 22 percent.)
Source: Service Sector Statistics

28%
Proportion of growth in inventories by our nation's department stores (excluding leased departments) through Aug. 31. to Nov. 30, 2006 — inventories having plummeted by 23 percent in December thanks to the holiday crowds
Source: Service Sector Statistics

1.7 Million
Number of people employed at department stores in December 2006, as retail employment typically swells during the holiday season, last year rising by an estimated 40,600 from November and 174,700 from October
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

$21 Billion
Value of retail sales by electronic shopping and mail-order houses in December 2006 — the highest total for any month last year
Source: Service Sector Statistics

48,695
The number of malls and shopping centers dotting the U.S. landscape as of 2005, a total that increased by approximately 12,000 since 1990.
Source: Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2007, Table 1035

$35.3 Billion
Value of total retail e-commerce sales for the fourth quarter of 2006, an amount representing 3.4 percent of total retail sales during the period and exceeding e-commerce sales for all other quarters of the year (Note: E-commerce sales were up 24 percent from the fourth quarter of 2005.)
Source: Service Sector Statistics

2.5%
Predicted percentage increase of holiday same-store sales over last year's holiday season
Source: International Council of Shopping Centers

8.5%
Average combined state and local sales tax levy — the highest ever — not including Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon, which don't have sales taxes
Source: Vertex, via Forbes

$19,507
Total cost of the "12 Days of Christmas" this year — a 3.1 percent increase over last year due to the significantly higher price of gold and increased compensation for minimum wage workers (Note: The price of "five gold rings" now totals $395, a 21.5 percent increase over 2006 prices. There was also a noticeable increase for "six geese a-laying" — 20 percent, according to the National Aviary.)
Source: PNC Wealth Management's 23rd annual Christmas Price Index

12 drummers drumming + 11 pipers piping + 10 lords a-leaping + 9 ladies dancing + 8 maids a-milking + 7 swans a-swimming + 6 geese a-laying + 5 golden rings + 4 calling birds + 3 French hens + 2 turtle doves + 1 partridge in a pear tree = $19,507
Credit: WisdomPortal.com

TOYS

$67 Billion
Total value of the world toy market (in U.S. dollars), which is expected to grow by 6 percent this year, with strongest growth expected in Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe
Source: International Council of Toy Industries / NDP Group survey

$3.3 Billion
Value of U.S. toy imports including stuffed toys (excluding dolls), puzzles and electric trains from China between January and June 2007, making China the leading country of origin for stuffed toys coming into this country, as well as for a roller skates ($79 million), sports footwear ($193 million), golf equipment ($36 million) and basketballs ($23 million)
Source: Foreign Trade Statistics

18 Ft.
Height of the world's largest dreidel — the toy of choice during Hanukkah — in Basking Ridge, N.J.
Source: Chabad Lubavitch

Credit: Chabad Jewish Center - Courier News

1934
The year that a board game designed by Charles B. Darrow was rejected by Parker Brothers because it had "52 fundamental errors," after which Darrow sold 5,000 sets himself, causing Parker Bros. to change its mind — thus Monopoly was born
Source: Classic Toy Museum

$3.3 Billion
Total value of shipments for dolls, toys and games by manufacturers in 2005
Source: Annual Survey of Manufacturers

100+ Million
Number of Lincoln Log sets sold worldwide since their introduction, thanks in part to a Davy Crocket craze in the 1950s
Source: Classic Toy Museum

3 Billion
Number of toys sold in America each year (Top toys this holiday season HERE)
Source: Toy Industry Association, Inc.

$13,050 Million
Revenue (in U.S. dollars) of mega toy retailer Toys "R" Us in 2007
Source: Yahoo Finance

2.5 Million
Annual sales of Tinker Toys sets the company averaged up until the 1960s
Source: Classic Toy Museum

25.6 Million
Number of toys recalled from stores in fiscal year 2007, compared with 5 million in FY2006
Earlier: Danger in Santa's Goody Bag

1946
The year a patent for a "toy and process of use" — i.e., the classic coil-shaped toy known as the "Slinky" — was filed by mechanical engineer Richard James, then issued on Jan. 28, 1947
Source(s): MIT Library and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

104
Number of establishments around the country that primarily manufactured dolls and stuffed toys in 2005, employing a total of 2,480 people
Source: County Business Patterns

500
Approximate number of different heads that have been made for Pez dispensers since their introduction around 1952 (Note: Pez was originally marketed as an adult mint for people trying to quit smoking. The first Pez dispensers, known to collectors as "regulars," did not have character heads.)
Source: Classic Toy Museum

707
Number of locations that primarily produced games, toys and children's vehicles in 2005, employing a total 15,381 workers
Source: County Business Patterns

1953
The year Mr. Potato Head met Mrs. Potato Head
Source: Classic Toy Museum

Credit: United National Consumers Suppliers