Tis the Season for Spending

Came across some staggering statistics about Christmas time economy at the local Starbucks.

• 2007 Holiday Retail Sales = $474.5 Billion
  
• 30 to 35 million real Christmas trees are sold in the U.S. every year.
  
• $9.3 billion in jewelry-store sales during November and December, 2007.
  
• 20 billion cards, letters and packages are delivered by the US Postal Service between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
  
• $19.8 Billion in computer and video game, console, and accessory sales during November and December, 2007.
  
• In November and December of 2007, consumers accumulated an estimated $12.8 billion in new debt, according to cardtrack, an organization that tracks credit card use. That is 16% of the total debt accumulated that year. (According to a 2007 survey, 1/3 of consumers were still paying off debt from the 2006 holiday season.)
  
• In 2007, the average consumer planed to spend more that $800 on Holiday related shopping and more than $100 on themselves.

Crazy stats.