The Christmas Index : From Trees to Turkey Dinners, Here Are Dozens of Weird and Wonderful Ways of Looking at the Holiday Season

With apologies to Harper’s magazine, which developed in its monthly index the idea of looking at the world with a statistical skew, View has taken its own tally of the quiddities of Christmas. Here’s our holiday toll, a mistletoe miscellany compiled by staff writers Paul Ciotti and Beverly Beyette:

Average amount American spends on Christmas gifts: $350-$375.

Average amount collected by Salvation Army bell-ringers per kettle per day in Southern California: $162.50

Average number of gifts received in 1987 by an American woman: 13

Average number of gifts received in 1987 by an American man: 10

Percentage of men who return Christmas gifts: 28

Percentage of women who start shopping for Christmas presents before Thanksgiving: 62

Percentage of people still shopping for presents on Christmas Eve: 28

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Percentage of gifts that are baked or cooked: 60

Percentage of baked or cooked gifts that are homemade: 90

Holiday gift sales of the Bible compared with works of Judith Krantz at 221 Crown Books retail outlets in Los Angeles and nationwide: Tie

Average number of gifts to be wrapped in typical American household: 29.5

Miles of Christmas wrapping paper produced by Hallmark, one of nation’s top three manufacturers: 24,053.

Length in miles of the Equator: 24,901

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Theft rate as a percentage of 1987 gross sales for department stores nationwide: 2.2

Percentage increase, 1986 to 1987, in department store theft rate: 29

Number of fresh Christmas trees bought in Los Angeles County in 1988: 1.1 million

Number of seedlings distributed in 1988 by TreePeople to schoolchildren for planting in Los Angeles County: 60,000.

Percentage of households that don’t put up a Christmas tree: 28

Average height of Douglas fir Christmas tree: 6-foot-9

Average cost per foot of a Christmas tree, 1978: $3.

Average cost per foot of a Christmas tree, 1988: $5.

Number of days the average Christmas tree stays up: 21

Number of indoor tree fires in Los Angeles last Christmas: 62

Estimated percentage of Los Angeles households that decorate with creches and Christmas trees: 25

Estimated percentage of Los Angeles households that decorate with Christmas trees and electric trains: 10

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Number of potted poinsettias shipped in California and Arizona in 1988 by Paul Ecke Poinsettia Ranch: 500,000

Percentage of Paul Ecke poinsettias that are red: 75

Average seasonal electrical cost per residence of Christmas decorative lights, 1987: 85 cents

Millions of kilowatt hours of electricity consumed last December by Christmas lighting in Los Angeles: 11

Millions of kilowatt hours of electricity consumed in an average month in all of Cambodia: 13

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Number of babies born Dec. 25, 1987, at County-USC Hospital: 33

Number of babies born nine months later, on Sept. 16, 1988, at County-USC Hospital: 46

Number of times that Mary, Joseph or Jesus appear in computer ranking of five most popular first names given to newborns in Los Angeles County: 0

Average number of its 150 Santa suits rented daily in December by Western Costume: 15-20

Average number of its 60 gorilla costumes rented daily in October by Western Costume: 15-20

Daily fee for Santa and gorilla costumes: $60-65.

Number of reindeer leased nationwide during the holidays by Operation Santa Claus: 42

Percentage of total leased in Southern California: 33

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Daily cost to board a dog for the holidays at Westside Pet Hotel: $10-$15

Daily cost of providing a bed and three meals to a needy person at The Depot in Pasadena: $12.18

Percentage of households that will entertain guests for Christmas, especially at sit-down dinners: 33

Percentage of households serving turkey for Christmas dinner: 50

Cost of Christmas dinner at the Bel Air Hotel: $45

Cost to provide Christmas dinner at Union Rescue Mission: $1.50

Pounds of See’s Candies sold at 215 retail stores and by mail during 1987 holiday season: 12 million

Number of clients who signed up in January, 1988, in Los Angeles and Ventura counties for Weight Watchers’ “Quick Success” program: 36,000

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Estimated percentage of Americans who take alcohol or drugs to cope with holiday depression: 35-40

Estimated percentage increase in frequency of holiday depression since 1948: 100

Number of suicides in Los Angeles County on Christmas Day, 1987: 5

Number of homicides: 3

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Number of letters to Santa processed at Terminal Annex in 1988: 3,000

Average number of Christmas cards an American household will receive in 1988: 26

Average weight in pounds of U.S. Postal Service carrier’s satchel during the holiday season: 30

Average weight in July: 15-20

Number of letters and parcels delivered by U.S. Postal Service between Thanksgiving and Christmas in Southern California: 650 million

Number of federal income-tax forms the IRS will mail on Dec. 26: 101 million

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Percentage of Muzak’s 9 a.m.-to-6 p.m. programming devoted to holiday tunes on Dec. 19: 50

Percentage on Dec. 25: 100

Ranking by Muzak of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” among the 700 holiday selections it plays during season: 1

Estimated number of versions of “White Christmas” played on Muzak: 9

Number of Christmas songs, besides “White Christmas,” honored in 1988 by American Society of Composers and Publishers for being among decade’s most-performed: 0

Chances of a white Christmas (an inch or more of snow) in Duluth, Minn.: 9 in 10

Chances of white Christmas in Los Angeles: 0 in 10

Number of times snow fell in last four decades on Mt. Wilson on Christmas Day: 1.

Number of times snow fell in last four decades at Chicago O’Hare International Airport on Christmas Day: 10

Amount of time to commute the 24 miles via Super Shuttle from downtown Los Angeles to LAX during Christmas week: 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Amount of time to commute the 7,530 miles from LAX to Sydney, Australia, on United Air Lines: 14 hours and 55 minutes.

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Value of Beverly Hills holiday street decorations: $1 million

Amount pledged by philanthropist Win Rhodes-Bea to provide future college scholarships to 200 inner-city sixth-graders: $1.5 million

Number of Universal Studios tour visitors who will be attacked by King Kong on Christmas Eve: 17,500.

Number of people at Christmas Eve candlelight services at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove: 25,000.

Number of people who spent Christmas, 1987, at Los Angeles County beaches: 20,000.

Cost of a Christmas Manhattan at Harry’s Bar in Century City: $3.25

Minimum fee charged by law firm of Jacoby & Meyers to defend first-time offender charged with drunk driving: $750

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SOURCES: Allied Model Trains; American Society of Composers and Publishers; Bel Air Hotel; Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce; California Christmas Tree Growers; Crown Books; Crystal Cathedral; Decisions Center Inc.; Department of Water and Power; Fresh Produce Council; Hallmark Cards; Harry’s Bar; IRS; International Mass Retail Assn.; Jacoby & Meyers; Las Familias del Pueblo; Los Angeles County Beaches-Harbor Department; Los Angeles County Coroner; Los Angeles Fire Department; Los Angeles County Health Services Department; Muzak; National Climatic Data Center; New Book of World Rankings; Operation Santa Claus; Paul Ecke Poinsettia Ranch; Salvation Army; See’s Candies; Super Shuttle; Tree People; Union Rescue Mission; Union Station Foundation; United Airlines; United Melon & Xmas Tree; U.S. Postal Service; Universal Studios; USC-County Hospital; USC Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; Weather Data Inc.; Weight Watchers; Westside Pet Hotel; Western Costume.