Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Explainer: Christmas 2015 by the Numbers
Explainer: Christmas 2015 by the Numbers
Jan 25, 2026 11:03 PM

As the most widely observed cultural holiday in the world, Christmas produces many things — joy, happiness, gratitude, reverence. And numbers. Lots of peculiar, often large, numbers. Here are a few to contemplate this season:

$39.50– Average amount U.S. consumers spent on real Christmas trees in 2014.

$63.60– Average amount U.S. consumers spent on fake Christmas trees in 2014.

33,000,000 – Number of real Christmas trees sold in the U.S. each year.

9,500,000 – Number of fake Christmas trees sold each year.

7 – Average growing time in years for a Christmas tree.

350 million –Number of Christmas trees currently growing on Christmas tree farms.

322.3 million – Current population of the United State.

$27.21 — The energy costs of lighting a six-foot Christmas tree, lit 12 hours a day for 40 days, decorated with various light types.

$1,200,000,000 – Estimated value of U.S. imports of Christmas tree ornaments from China between January and September 2015.

$24,500,000,000–Estimated retail sales by the nation’s department stores (including leased departments) in December 2014. This represents an estimated 41.2 percent jump from the previous month when retail sales were estimated at 17.3 billion.

800,000 – Number of new employees hired pensate for the holiday rush in 2015.

37.5 percent — Estimated percentage of charitable giving that occurs between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.

$830– Average amount people in the U.S. estimated they’ll spent in on Christmas presents in 2015.

108,000,000 — Average number of homes Santa Claus has to visit on December 25 (assuming there is at least one “nice” child in each).

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Video: Donald Devine On America’s Way Back
The Fall 2015 Acton Lecture Series kicked off on September 17 with an address from Donald Devine, Senior Scholar at the Fund for American Studies, and formerly – and most famously – Ronald Reagan’s Director of the Office of Personnel Management, where he earned the nickname “Reagan’s Terrible Swift Sword of the Bureaucracy” from the Washington Post. These days, he spends his time traveling around the country teaching Constitutional Leadership Seminars, andworking hard to save the marriage between libertarianism and...
Why the Gospel Is Necessary in Economic Development
The global conversation on poverty alleviation has taken some interesting turns over the past decade, with an increasing range of economists, government leaders, and even rock stars beginning to challenge the status quo of economic development and foreign aid. Contrary to the longstanding model of top-down solution-seeking, we are seeing a new emphasis on the power of markets and the importance of bottom-up “searchers.”And yet, even as we begin to make productive steps toward improved quality of life and widespread...
Have Cookies Convinced the Pope About Capitalism?
Based on their latest headline, it looks likesomeone from the Acton Instituteiswriting for the The Onion: Pope Francis Reverses Position On Capitalism After Seeing Wide Variety Of American Oreos As the article says: Admitting the startling discovery pelled him to reexamine his long-held beliefs, His Holiness Pope Francis announced Tuesday that he had reversed his critical stance toward capitalism after seeing the immense variety of Oreos available in the United States. “Oh, my goodness, look at all these! Golden Oreos,...
How Many Felonies Did You Commit Today?
After years of working for a pany, you decide to start your own business designing websites. One of your first clients is a charity that focuses on teaching traditional religious customs and practices. While building the website, you link to other organizations that share some, but not all, of your charity’s views. You’ve mitted an arguable federal felony: Because information on the websites to which you link contained advocacy of religious extremism, you have broken the federal Patriot Act provision...
Audio: Peter Johnson On The Importance Of Pope Francis’ Visit
Acton Institute External Relations Officer Peter Johnson wrote recently at The Federalist that “If Francis can imagine a way to affirm my generation’s devotion to the marginalized while delivering a stern warning against the sort of degenerate sentimentality and paternalism that advocating for the poor can engender, then I think Francis could have an astounding impact here.” He’s been called upon a number of times now to share his thoughts on this topic on a variety of podcasts, and we’d...
Lester DeKoster’s 3 Dimensions of Work  
Lester DeKoster’s short book, Work: The Meaning of Your Life, sets forth a profound thesis and solid theological framework for how we think about work. Although the faith and work movement has delivered a host of books and resources on the topic, DeKoster’s book stands out for its bite and balance. It is remarkably concise, and yet sets forth a holistic vision that considers the multiple implications of the Christian life. The book was recently re-issued, along with the new...
A Drug Price Jumped 5,000 Percent Overnight. Blame the Government, Not the Free Market
In the early 1950s, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Gertrude Elion developed the drug Daraprim bat malaria. Daraprim is now also used to fight toxoplasmosis, which infects people whose immune systems have been weakened by AIDS, chemotherapy and pregnancy. It’s such an important drug that it’s on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines, among the most important medications needed in a basic health system. A single pill used to sell for $1, but the price was raised around 2010...
What Pope Francis Misses About the Morality of Capitalism
“Defending capitalism on practical grounds is easy,” writes economist Donald Boudreaux at the Mercatus Center. “It is history’s greatest force for raising the living standards of the masses.” What’s more difficult, it seems, is understanding its moral logic, spiritual implications, and which of each is or isn’t inherent to private ownership and economic exchange. At what level, for instance, is freely buying a gallon of milk at a freely agreed-to price from a freely employed worker at an independent grocery...
Video: Sirico Comments On Pope’s Arrival On Bloomberg TV
Acton President Rev. Robert A. Sirico is in Washington, D.C. to participate in the papal visit to the US; tomorrow he will be attending the Pope’s address to the US Congress. In the meantime, he’s being called upon ment on Pope Francis’ trip and the challenges the Pope will offer to both sides of the political debate in the United States. Below, you can view Sirico’sinterview on Bloomberg TV from this morning. And stay tuned to the PowerBlog for more...
Audio: Sirico On The Laura Ingraham Show – Francis Arrives In Washington, D.C.
Acton Institute President Rev. Robert A. Sirico joined host Laura Ingraham on The Laura Ingraham Show while stuck in Washington, D.C. traffic resulting from the arrival of Pope Francis in the city. They discussed the the optics of the Pope’s arrival at the White House, ments there, and what to expect as the Pope addresses Congress tomorrow morning. We’ve posted the audio of the interview below; our thanks to The Laura Ingraham Show for the kind permission to share this...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved