The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Some interesting facts about the Christmas season... $804 Ð the average amount each Canadian consumer Êspent in December 2004. This was almost $250 more than they spent on average during any other given month of the year. Albertans were the biggest spenders, spendingÊ$967 during the month followed closely by shoppers in the Yukon and Northwest Territories. Three times Ð the amount by which toy, hobby and games store sales grew in December 2004 compared with an average month. Other stores enjoying triple sales growth during December 2004 were jewellery, luggage and leather goods stores and music stores. One-fifth Ð the proportion of annual revenue generated by toy and hobby stores during December last year. Retailers who specialize in sales of sound and video recordings such as DVDs and CDs also took in one-fifth of their annual revenue during December. $34.5 billion Ð the amount of money Canadian shoppers spent in December 2004, up 6.9 per cent from the previous December. $3.2 billion Ð the amount of money Canadians spent in department stores in December 2004, by far the leader in total sales among all categories of stores last December. Beer, wine and liquor stores reported the second highest total sales during that period, followed by appliance, television and other electronic stores, family clothing stores and sporting goods stores. Toy, hobby and game stores ranked ninth in total sales with $296 million. 68 per cent Ð the proportion of stores offering gift cards during the 2004 Christmas season. That was considerably higher than the 53 per cent that offered gift cards the previous Christmas season, according to a survey of 80 of the largest retailers selling clothing, home furnishings, electronics and sporting goods. 2,933 Ð the number of farms in Canada that grew Christmas trees for sale, according to the 2001 Census of Agriculture. In all, 37,612 hectares of land were planted with Christmas trees. 918 Ð the number of farms that grew Christmas trees for sale in 2001 in Ontario, the province with the highest total. Nova Scotia followed with 535 farms and British Columbia with 526. $48 million Ð the total value of Christmas trees and other Christmas articles exported in 2004, up 8% from a year earlier. The overwhelming majority (99%) of these exports were to the United States. * * * Some festive-named communities... Christmas Island, Nova Scotia Reindeer Station, Northwest Territories Gift Lake, Alberta Stocking Harbour, Newfoundland and Labrador Chimney Lake, British Columbia Holly, Ontario Sled Lake, Saskatchewan
