Fruitful

Statistics on Christmas 

Christmas Dinner
The average family spends £170 on their Christmas dinner. (source: The List 14th Nov 2008)

The average cost of food for your Christmas dinner has increased by 4.6% this year. (Source: mysupermarket.com)

Mince Pies
We spent £115 million on seasonal cakes last year and mince pies make up 44% of that figure which means we spent £50.6m just on mince pies. A total of 370 million mince pies were sold from the cake and instore-bakery shelves of UK supermarkets. We ate on average 27 mince pies each. (source: talkingretail.com)

The average cost of a six foot Christmas tree is expected to be £45, an increase of £10 on last year's price. (source: British Christmas Tree Growers Association)

Christmas Puddings
Chefs at Celtic Manor Resort baked 3,000 Christmas puddings in a single day in early November so that they were ready for their season of Christmas party bookings. They used 580 eggs, 94kg (14st 11lb) of mixed fruit, 66 pints of Guinness and 17 bottles of rum. The ingredients also included 72kg (11st 4lb) of brown sugar, 30kg (4st 10lb) of flour, 18kg (2st 11lb) of treacle, 17.5kg (2st 10lb) of syrup and 12kg (2st 2lb) of ground almonds.

Christmas Crackers
Sales of Christmas crackers rose 30% in 2007 to £25 million. (source: Retail Bulletin Nov 26 2007)

Christmas Cards
We send 1 billion cards each year. Last year the Woodland Trust in co-operation with a number of High Street retailers and RecycleNow was hoping to recycle 100 million Christmas cards after Christmas 2007 which will enable them to plant 24,000 trees.

Christmas presents
The average shopper spends £384 on presents. Those aged 35-44 years spend the most with the 2007 figure standing at £570. (source: HBOS plc)

The Stamp of approval
The Royal Mail has broken with tradition to feature both religious and secular images in its 2008 Christmas stamp collection. The religious themed stamps will feature the Madonna of Humility by Lippo di Dalmasio on the 1st class stamp while the 2nd class stamp will feature William Dyce's Madonna and Child. The Royal Mail's Head of Special stamps, Julietta Edgar said: "This year we are delighted to offer our customers a choice of Christmas stamps and the images will be seen on millions of letters and cards throughout the UK as well as on gifts sent across the globe."

Royal mail are expecting 750 million Christmas cards to be posted this year and they are predicting that Monday 15th December will be their busiest day in 2008 with a possible 123 million items being posted on that day.

Reported in the Daily Telegraph 4 November 2008
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/3376781/Christmas-stamps-include-pantomime-images.html

Presents Galore!
Research from The Children's Mutual found that 41 per cent of toys and presents given to children at Christmas are broken by March, with children on average receiving 10 presents in addition to those provided by their parents.

Research by LloydsTSB Insurance found that the average child owns £1,720 of toys in their bedroom and 90 per cent of parents who were questioned in December 2007 said they were planning to spend up to £500 on their children at Christmas.

Reported in the Daily Mail 4 December 2007
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-499545/Average-child-1-720-worth-toys-bedroom.html

What Children think of Christmas
A poll for the BBC children’s TV programme Newsround found that of those surveyed:

  • 44% of 7-11 year-olds regarded Christmas day as a celebration of the birth of Jesus - although in Northern Ireland the figure rose to 71%.
  • Although 89% were excited, and 79% were happy about the holiday period, one in six said they felt sad, nervous or left out at Christmas.
  • Perhaps not so surprisingly, one in four (24%) believed the season was about giving, rather than receiving, presents.
  • Giving clearly matters, however, with almost two-thirds (63%) saving their pocket money to buy presents, adding up to an average piggy-bank of £34. 33% nationally and 45% in Scotland managed to save more than £50.

Newsround presenter Ellie Crisell said; ‘Christmas is exciting for children but it can also be stressful. They worry about their families getting along, about buying the right present and, amid the festivities, feeling alone.’

Reported in the Daily Mail 19 December 2006

Christian Tourism
1 million tourists were expected to visit Israel in 2007,an increase of 30 per cent over the previous year, and the number of pilgrims visiting the Holy Land at Christmas increased by 50 per cent in 2007 to 60,000.

Reported in Christian Today 20 December 2007

Knowledge of the Christmas story
A survey conducted by ComRes for Theological think tank Theos in November 2007 found that only 12 per cent of the 1000 people questioned about the Christmas story as told in the Bible could answer all 4 questions in the survey correctly. However most of those questioned (73 per cent) knew where Jesus was born but slightly more in depth questions caused problems for most participants. 36% of Christians in the survey answered all 4 questions correctly.The knowledge of the Christmas story varies with age. The youngest people questioned (aged 18-24) know least, with only 7% knowing the correct answers to all the questions asked. Middle aged people (aged 55-64) know most - 18% answering all questions correctly.