Christmas Facts Around the World

Venere.com, the European online accommodation specialist, has released a list of fun facts about how Christmas is celebrated around the world:

XMAS: In Greek, X means Christ; that is where the word Xmas comes from!

Christmas World Record: The world's largest Christmas present was the Statue of Liberty. The French gave it to the US in 1886. It is 46.5 meters high and weighs 225 tons.

Green Christmas: It can take up to 15 years to grow an average-sized tree of 6 to 7 feet, sometimes as little as 4 years, but the average growing time is 7 years.

Christmas Songs: Bing Crosby 's 'White Christmas' was released in 1942 and is considered to be the best-selling Christmas song of all time.

Christmas Statistics:

- 1 in 10 - The number of the presents received that will be broken by
the New Year

- 7 in 10 - The number of dogs that get Christmas gifts from their
owners

- 33' - The average time spent per person on last-minute purchases

- 25 - The number of minutes spent in queues when Christmas shopping

- 832 - The number of homes Santa visits every second to deliver all
his presents

- 5,340 - Average number of times Visa Cards are used every minute
during Christmas

2010 Average Budget for Christmas Presents:

USA: 520 EUR
UK: 474 EUR
GERMANY: 270 EUR
ITALY: 325 EUR
FRANCE: 366 EUR
SPAIN: 383 EUR
NETHERLANDS: 206 EUR

Traditional Christmas Sweets:

- FRANCE: Buche de Noel (a Genoise or other sponge cake, baked
in a large Swiss roll pan)

- USA: Pumpkin Cake (with cinnamon and ginger, frosted with
cream cheese frosting)

- SPAIN: Nougat (made with sugar or honey, roasted nuts)

- HUNGARY: Beigli (roll of sweet yeast bread with a dense,
rich, bittersweet filling)

- ITALY: Panettone (is a type of sweet bread loaf originally
from Milan)

- SWEDEN: Pepparkakor (heart-star and goat-shaped gingerbread
biscuit)

- UK: Christmas Pudding (steamed pudding, with dried fruit and
nuts, usually made with suet)

- PORTUGAL: Pain Perdu (French toast made with bread and eggs,
milk, sugar and cinnamon)

- GERMANY: Lebkuchen (large cookies made of honey)