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Christmas Fun Facts and Trivia

How much will we spend this year? And what's the best-selling Christmas song of all time? Find the answers below.

You know that there were three Wise Men, 12 days of Christmas and that Santa delivers all his presents around the world in one night. But did you know...

$23,439.38 

How much it would cost to buy your "true love" all the gifts in the 12 Day of Christmas .

12.9 billion hours, $447 billion

How many hours Americans were expected to spend shopping, wrapping and returning gifts last year. That was about 42 hours and $688.87 per person. 

Get your postman/postwoman a gift

According to Hallmark, Christmas is the largest card-sending occasion . Nearly 1.5 billion cards are sent to friends and family every Christmas Season. (That's actually down 400 million cards since 2004.)

$983 million

The value of U.S. imports of Christmas tree ornaments from China between January and September 2011. China was the leading country of origin for such items. Similarly, China was the leading foreign source of artificial Christmas trees shipped to the United States ($79.7 million worth) during the same period.

Best-selling trees 

The best-selling trees  are Scotch pine, Douglas fir, Noble fir, Fraser fir, Virginia pine, balsam fir and white pine. The first decorated tree  dates back to 1510 in Riga, Latvia.

Tree maturation 

It takes the average Christmas Tree seven to ten years to mature .

White Christmas

According to Venere.com , Bing Crosby 's 'White Christmas', released in 1942, is the best-selling Christmas song of all time. The site also reports that 1 in 10 presents received at Christmas will be broken by the New Year!

Insuring Santa 

Lloyd's of London issued the first insurance policy  to protect Santa Claus. The policy covers Santa until the 25th of December in the event of accident and illness, in the run up to and during his worldwide travels to deliver presents to good children.


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Just a short thought to get the word out quickly about anything in your neighborhood.
Share something with your neighbors. Write a new post... What's up? Make an announcement, speak your mind, or sell something
protests in Washington DC
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protests in Washington DC
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actors from Clerks 1 and 2
nick mastick April 28, 2013 at 09:34 pm
Of all the concerns in our society, I put this just about dead last.
Steven Murphy April 17, 2013 at 02:25 am
Hmm. So I think you're telling me I need to add the countdown timers to the long list of BerkeleyRead More idiosyncrasies I need to ignore? I guess can do that. Thanks. --Murph
Alexander Sinclair Merenkov April 15, 2013 at 04:34 pm
This is very interesting. I bicycle and walk a lot around Berkeley. I think i know exactly whatRead More signal is being referred to the walk sign across Bancroft at MLK specifically will reset itself. many of the walk signals rely on induction loops which are loops placed in the ground that can detect Bicycles and Cars when the Bicycles or cars pass over them disrupting the current. You can often see these loops as they look like hexagonal saw cuts in the ground. Anyways the intersection detects traffic with these devices & if it doesn't detect anything then it assumes nothing is there and gives right of way to the major throughway in this case being MLK. So the reason the counter to cross Bancroft resets itself is totally logical because the intersection suspects no one is there and since that side of Bancroft is more or less residential there would be no point in setting that intersection to a timer where it gives priority to one light then the other & switches based on that & not on wether it detects any bicycles or cars passing over the induction loops. Also this is Berkeley and we are rather quirky and always have been so nobody exactly fallows the rules or knows about them its funny how simple crossing the street really is but its anything but simple in reality. Many people choose to jay walk if its safe to do so, this is typical on Shattuck at alston especially and makes sense for efficiency but isn't very safe or lawful. If the hand is flashing/Counting down dont cross!
Janet Scrivener April 6, 2013 at 11:15 pm
Actually, I just saw and spoke to him about an hour ago - the wire sculpture man. He'd moved downRead More Solano a few blocks, opposite Safeway. I asked him if the police had moved him off Colusa. He said he didn't want to talk about it. He wasn't in a very good mood. I told him that people had asked about him on a web local news site. He said, "People want to know how I'm doing? I need a car. I need somewhere to put my stuff in. To get off the streets. I don't want to sit around starving in public." I thought to myself, "Who do I think I am? A Girl Scout leader? Pollyana?" I realized my upbeat, cheery tone was really not what was needed just then. I said I couldn't help him with a car. "People want to know how I'm doing?" he said again. "Tell them that." I said, "I will." I turned to walk away, knowing only too well that the real needs that exist, yes, right here in our lovely, excellent neighborhood, are great and once you start giving you'll find it's difficult to get out of. He did say, "Thank you," as I left. He doesn't look like he's starving. But he's right about being out in public more than he would like to be. As a reasonable human being, I have to ask myself, what sort of person finds himself in that position? Ex con? Mental illness? Mind-blown Vet? Drugs? Alcohol? Incapacitated by an accident? An unforgivable act? Some combination of the above? Jesus did say, "The poor you shall have always with you." What would you do?
P. Park April 4, 2013 at 03:29 am
I agree Shattuck, especially right in front of the fire station is the scariest street around.
Mary April 3, 2013 at 06:45 pm
I am not disabled, but I am terrified of crossing streets nowadays because there are too manyRead More careless and aggressive drivers who act is if red lights, speed limits, and crosswalks either don't exist or don't apply to them. Shattuck in particular has become a nightmare to cross. Sometimes I have counted over 30 cars going by before one stops for the crosswalk. What we need is far more law enforcement - the tickets written would more than pay for the cost of hiring extra officers.