2009 Holiday Season
Fun Facts
Enjoy MERIC’s fun facts covering all of your holiday favorites: shopping, decorating, snowfall chances, tree selection and more. Have yourself a jolly holiday season!
Shopping
$437.6 billion
The expected holiday sales for the 2009.
1/3
The portion of consumers that buy items the last week before Christmas.
Busiest Shopping Days
The Saturday and Sunday before Christmas.
99%
The percentage of
malls with extended holiday hours. On average they begin November
23, the day after Thanksgiving.
28
The number of shopping days in the 2009 holiday season.
$23.63 Billion
The expected total spending on gift cards for 2009.
Black Friday Weekend
"Black Friday" is the Friday following Thanksgiving Day, which is the beginning of the traditional holiday shopping season.
31.3
The percent of Black Friday shoppers who were out shopping by 5 A.M. on Black Friday 2009.
$302.68
The average amount spent by Midwest consumer on Black Friday in 2009.
Clothing/Accessories
The number one item purchased on Black Friday. Over 50.9% of Black Friday shoppers purchased clothing or accessories.
Cyber Monday Facts
"Cyber Monday" is the first Monday after Black Friday designated for the start of the online shopping season.
80%
The number of online retailers that offered free shipping for cyber Monday in 2009.
85 Million
The number of people that planned to shop online on Cyber Monday 2009.
White Christmas
22
The number of Christmas mornings that have been white
or had an inch or more of snow on the ground in the past 114 years
in St. Louis.
18 to 23
The
percent chance of having a white Christmas in Missouri this year.
2005
The year
of the last white Christmas in St. Louis when one inch of snow was
observed Christmas morning.
Christmas Tree Facts
$410 Million
Sales by U.S. Christmas tree farmers in 2007.
Pine and
Fir
The best selling types
of Christmas tree including: Scotch pine, Douglas fir, Noble fir,
Fraser fir, Virginia pine, Balsam fir and White pine.
50
The number of states
that grow Christmas trees, including Hawaii and Alaska.
7 to 10
The average number of
years it takes for a Christmas tree to mature.
Warren County
The
number one county in Missouri for Christmas tree production with 4,978 trees and 102 acres in production. Boone County is second with 2,140 trees and 57 acres in production.
134
The
number of christmas tree farms in Missouri.
27,344
Missouri’s crop of cut
Christmas trees, last reported for 2007.
Environmentally friendly
Farm-raised Christmas
trees remove dust and pollen from the air and are often recycled.
One Quart
The amount of water a live cut christmas tree will consume per day.
Santa's Helpers
5 Days
The time it takes the
average mall to decorate for the holiday season.
Jingle
Bells
The most frequently
played holiday song in shopping malls last year.
White
Christmas
The second most
frequently played holiday song last year in shopping malls.
November 21st
The day Santa arrives at most malls listen to children's lists and to give out candy canes, coloring books and lollipops.
US Postal Service
16.6 Billion
Pieces of mail the U.S. Postal Service expected to deliver between Thanskgiving and Christmas 2009.
December 14th
The busiest mailing day of the holiday season.
Sources:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lsx/?n=whitechristmas
http://www.bls.gov
http://www.census.gov/mrts/www/mrts.html
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/trees/treefacts.html
http://www.icsc.org/
http://www.agcensus.usda.gov
http://www.ers.usda.gov
http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2007/Full_Report
National Climatic Data Center Research Customer Service Group
