'Tis the season for Christmas factoids

National Christmas Tree Association

•              There are approximately 25-30 million real Christmas trees sold in the U.S. every year.

•              There are close to 350 million real Christmas trees currently growing on Christmas tree farms in the U.S. alone, all planted by farmers.

•              There are more than 4,000 local Christmas tree recycling programs throughout the United States.

•              It can take as many as 15 years to grow a tree of typical height (6-7 feet) or as little as four years, but the average growing time is seven years.

•              The top Christmas tree producing states are Oregon, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Washington.

National Retail Federation

•              According to NRF’s Gift Card Spending Survey, the average person buying gift cards will spend $172.74, up from $163.16 last year. Total spending is expected to reach $31.74 billion.

•              The survey found one in five parents (20%) this holiday season plan to buy Disney’s Frozen merchandise for the little girls in their life, beating out the top reigning Barbie (16.8%) for the first time in the survey’s 11-year history. LEGO toys are number one again for boys this year (14.2%).

•              According to NRF’s 2014 holiday consumer survey, 42 percent of shoppers plan to buy toys as gifts this holiday season. For girls, dolls hold the top spots at two (Barbie), three (generic), four (Monster High Dolls) and five (American Girl), while boys have made it clear they still want cars and trucks (#2).

•              According to Shop.org, this year, 56 percent of holiday shoppers expect to do at least some part of their holiday shopping online and online holiday shoppers plan to spend 16% more than all holiday shoppers on gifts, decorations and food for the holidays.

•              NRF’s survey, conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, found the average person celebrating Christmas, Kwanzaa and/or Hanukkah will spend $804.42, up nearly five percent over last year’s actual $767.27. NRF and Prosper’s spending survey is now in its 13th year.

•              The survey found consumers will spend an average of $459.87 on gifts for their family, up 6.5 percent from $432 last year, and $80 on gifts for friends, up from $75 last year.

Travel

•              Airlines for America (A4A), the industry trade organization for the leading U.S. airlines projects 45 million customers will fly on U.S. airlines during the 19-day period from Wednesday, Dec. 17 through Sunday, Jan. 4, an increase of approximately 2 percent or 47,000 daily travelers. Last year, 44 million customers were estimated to have traveled by air.

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