Those festive folks at the U.S. Census Bureau have come up with an assortment of holiday season fun facts and statistics with a particular eye on America's most revered seasonal tradition: buying things:

Christmas Trees, Ornaments and Gifts
$521 million
The amount of money the nation's Christmas tree farmers received from tree sales in 2003.

$158 million
The amount received by Christmas tree farmers in Oregon from tree sales in 2003, making the Beaver State the nation's Christmas tree leader. North Carolina, Washington and Michigan round out the top four states in tree sales. <

More on Christmas trees and the battle between artificial and natural here.

$312 million
The value of U.S. imports of Christmas tree ornaments from China between January and July 2004. 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 ($40 million worth) during the same period.

$30.6 billion
The dollar amount of retail sales by the U.S. toy industry in 2002. Of this, $10.3 billion came from sales of video games. It is believed a hefty percentage of these sales were holiday gifts.

Holiday Names
1
The number of places around the country named "Christmas." That unincorporated town is Christmas, Fla., which had a population of 1,162 in 2000.

Other places whose names are associated with the holiday season include North Pole, Alaska (population 1,645 in 2003); Santa Claus, Ind. (2,164); Santa Claus, Ga. (238); Noel, Mo. (1,452); and the village of Rudolph, Wis. (415).

Holiday Shopping — The December Rush
The holiday season is critical for retailers. How critical? Well, here are some examples using the most recent Census Bureau data available. Note that the estimates that follow have not been adjusted to account for seasonal or pricing variations.

$31.1 billion
Retail sales by the nation's department stores (including leased departments) in December 2003. This represented a 48 percent jump from the previous month (when retail sales, many Christmas-related, registered $21.0 billion). No other month-to-month increase in department store sales last year was as large.

Other U.S. retailers with sizable jumps in sales between November and December 2003 were clothing stores (45 percent); jewelry stores (169 percent); book stores (95 percent); sporting goods stores (66 percent); and radio, TV and other electronics stores (59 percent).

$14.4 billion
The value of electronic shopping and mail-order sales in December 2003, easily the greatest amount for any month that year.

$17.5 billion
The value of total retail e-commerce sales for the fourth quarter of 2003. This amount, representing 1.9 percent of total retail sales over the period, exceeded e-commerce sales for all other quarters of the year.

14 percent
The proportion of total 2003 sales for department stores (including leased departments) that took place in December. For jewelry stores, the percentage was 24 percent.