Festive Fun Facts

Wishing you and your families a safe and warm holiday season, and a very happy New Year!

• Holiday shopping sales are projected to hit $1 trillion in the U.S. Between $96 billion and $98 billion of those sales will be online.
• Holiday shopping can account for up to 30 percent of a retailer’s annual sales.
• 76% of mobile shoppers changed their mind about which retailer/brand to buy from after searching online.
• The average holiday shopper spends around $935 online during the holidays.
• 33 million real Christmas trees are sold in the U.S. each year.
• It takes an average of seven years to grow a Christmas tree.
• Retail foot traffic continues to slump. One study found foot traffic in US retail stores fell 7.5% in November and December 2017.
• 67% of consumers have purchased a gift they saw on social media.
• FedEx predicts to handle 400 million packages.
• USPS is expected to deliver more than 15 billion pieces of mail including 850 million packages.
• UPS plans to deliver more than 750 million packages globally.
• The U.S. Department of Commerce found sales of building materials and garden equipment surged by 8.1% during the holiday season, while furniture and home furnishing sales increased by 7.5% and sales in electronics and appliance stores grew 6.7%.
• Animal Crackers were originally a Christmas treat. They were first introduced in 1902. The string on the box was intended to be used to hang the boxes on Christmas trees.
• Jelly doughnuts are a traditional Hanukkah treat.
• Queen Elizabeth I invented gingerbread men.
• Cookies were originally made to test oven temperature. Cooks would take a small dollop of cake batter and bake it as a means of gauging whether the oven was ready or not.
• The most popular holiday destination is Mexico.
• Since 2005, total year-end holiday travel has increased by over 25%.
• 107.3 million Americans will travel by plane, train, automobile and other modes of transportation from December 23 to January 1.
• 94.7 million will travel by automobile.
• 6.4 million will travel by air.
• 3.6 million will travel by trains, buses, rails and cruise ships.

• http://mentalfloss.com/article/89875/15-shocking-facts-about-holiday-shopping
• https://www.disruptiveadvertising.com/ppc/ecommerce/holiday-marketing-statistics/
• https://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/holiday-airport-travel-tips-fun-facts
• https://newsroom.aaa.com/2017/12/holiday-plans-will-travel-record-breaking-107-million-americans-celebrate-holidays-away-home/
• http://www.henrywurst.com/helpful-holiday-marketing-statistics/