Stats & Facts

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Spending  

• In the United States, people spent a collective $24 billion on Easter in 2023. This was an all-time high following almost two decades of rising Easter spending. 
• Some 81% of Americans plan to celebrate Easter in 2024, with celebrants expecting to spend an average of $177.06 per person. 
• Food, clothing, and gifts are the top spending categories for Easter, followed by candy, flowers and decorations. 

Celebration  

• Half of all households with kids are planning to celebrate with an Easter egg hunt at home.
• About 60% of parents plan to give or send their kids Easter baskets, even if they've moved out. 
• 91 million chocolate Easter bunnies are sold in the United States annually. In fact, 50% of celebrators plan to buy candy, making it the second-most popular holiday for candy purchasing after Halloween. 
• Around 180 million chicken eggs are purchased for Easter each year. It takes more than 6,000 gallons of water to produce these Easter eggs and generates 46,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of 4.5 million gallons of gasoline. 
• A heartbreaking 80% of pet bunnies purchased for Easter are abandoned. Rabbits can live up to 15 years. 

Waste  

• Around 30% of all U.S. household waste is containers and packaging, which includes all those plastic candy wrappers. 
• It’s estimated that hundreds of millions of plastic Easter eggs are made each year. Plastic eggs are often used once and thrown out. Sometimes they’re forgotten and left to litter the lawns they’ve been hidden in. Plus, since plastic doesn’t decompose, Easter eggs from 2002 and earlier are still around, breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces that can end up in the water we drink and the air we breathe.  

Spending

• Americans spend over $10 billion annually on Halloween costumes, candy, and decorations. For that amount of money you could buy your own private island and have money left over. 
• On average, Americans buy $3.2 billion worth of Halloween costumes every year. 

Waste

• 83% of Halloween costume materials are oil-based plastics. That equates to some 2,000 tons of plastic, much of which is disposed of after the costume is worn only one or two times. 
• A single trick-or-treater generates one pound of trash on Halloween.
• It’s estimated that 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins are thrown out after Halloween every year.
• ReFed estimates that 312 million pounds of food from Thanksgiving dinner will be thrown out this year. Producing this food generates more than 1.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, which is the same as driving 169,000 cars for a full year. More than 1 billion gallons of water go into producing this amount of food; the same amount of water used by everyone in New York City for three and a half months.
•  About 200 million pounds of turkey will be thrown away at Thanksgiving.

Holiday Spirit

• A December 2022 poll from the American Psychiatric Association found that 31% of adults said they expected to feel more stressed during the upcoming holiday season compared to last — an increase in 9 percentage points since 2021. Potential drivers of stress included worries like affording holiday gifts (50%) and meals (39%) and finding and securing holiday gifts (37%). Younger adults and those making less than $50,000 were more likely to worry about affording the holidays.
• 90% of respondents to a 2022 national survey conducted by the Center for Biological Diversity wish that the holidays were less materialistic, up from 78% in 2005.
• 87% of respondents to the 2022 survey believe that the holidays should be more about family and caring for others, not giving and receiving gifts.
• 84% of the 2022 survey respondents agree that the acts of giving and receiving gifts are awarded too much importance during the holiday season, up from 74% in 2005.

Christmas Trees 

• 25-30 million real Christmas trees are sold each year.
• Americans spend more than $6.1 billion on Christmas trees each year. 
• 47% of American households bought a real or fake Christmas tree in 2021.

Waste 

• A 2021 analysis conducted by the Center for Biological Diversity shows that Americans generate 23% more tons of waste in December than in other months of the year. *
  • Each person generates 36 more pounds of waste in December than in other months of the year. That’s the equivalent of everyone throwing away 7 computer monitors.
  • The United States creates 5.8 million tons more waste in December than in other months of the year. That’s equivalent to the weight of 28,713 Boeing 747 airplanes. 
• According to a 2020 survey, 3 in 5 Americans have lied about liking a gift they’ve received. 
• In 2017 nearly one-third of people who accepted a gift they didn’t like threw it in the trash. 
• Retailers dump about 25% of returned products  in landfills. In 2019 it was found that retailers dump 5 billion pounds of returned products in U.S. landfills each year. 

*The Center for Biological Diversity aggregated trash, recycling, yard-waste and food-waste data from eight local governments across the country for the 2017, 2018 and 2019 calendar years. Data was reported in tons. Per capita rates were calculated using population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Pounds per person was calculated using the Environmental Protection Agency’s estimation that 4.9 pounds of waste is generated per person per day. We assume any variations in market-level data when aggregated are representative of a national trend.   

 Consumption

• A 2018 analysis estimated that 4.6 million pounds of wrapping paper are produced in the United States each year and about half of it (2.3 million pounds) ends up in landfills.
• 3 out of 4 people in the United States think the average American consumes too many natural resources. 
• 67% of people are currently reducing their personal consumption. 
• 82% of people are willing to reduce their personal consumption, but 31% of them need more information to do so.

Holiday Shopping  

• Retailers expect about 18%, or $158 billion, of goods sold during the holiday season to be returned, according to the National Retail Federation’s most recent data and reported by CNBC. 
• Americans spent an average of $1,447 on gifts, travel and entertainment during the 2021 holiday season. That’s 13% more than the pre-pandemic 2019 holiday season. 
• More than $8.3 billion is estimated to be wasted on unwanted gifts each year according to a 2022 report. 
• In 2021 the majority of holiday shoppers (76%) said they favor companies with strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices — that jumps to 86% for Millennials. And 56% of people said they would buy more from local and independent stores. 
• 66% of holiday shoppers will pay more for sustainable products, with younger generations leading the way, according to a 2021 survey.
• As a means of reducing holiday spending in 2022, 21% of people will regift.
• In a survey of American women in 2021, 46% reported they’d be thrilled to get a weekend break or a holiday, 42% said they’d be happy to receive some credit at their favorite shop, and 36% would love a handmade present.
• In a survey of American men in 2021, nearly one-third want gift vouchers, but only around 20% actually get them.

•  A 2022 thredUP report found that an estimated 244 million Americans over the age of 18 are willing to buy secondhand, citing its affordability, environmental benefits, and enjoyable social experience.
  • 65% are interested in avoiding brand-new products, specifically fast fashion apparel. 
  • ThredUP’s report found that secondhand apparel purchases prevent the purchase of 1 billion new items from fast fashion brands.
• In 2018, 94% of people said they’d buy or consider buying a refurbished smartphone, laptop, tablet, smart speaker or other electronic device as a gift.
• A 2020 Goodwill report found that the nonprofit recovered over 3 billion pounds of used goods and 15 million pounds of electronics in 2020 alone, diverting these items from the landfill and recirculating them into local economies. 

Spending

• Americans spent $27 billion on Valentine’s Day gifts alone last year.  

Waste

• More than 30 million recipients of Valentine’s Day gifts don’t even want these gifts — meaning they’ll likely end up in landfills.  
• Over 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate are sold for Valentine’s Day each year, wrapped in packaging that can’t be recycled and often containing unsustainable ingredients like palm oil. 
• 145 million Valentine’s cards are sold in the United States every year, often made from materials that can’t be recycled. 
• Around 100 million roses are grown for Valentine’s Day each year, producing about 9,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions — the equivalent of nearly 2,000 cars being driven for a year. 
• More than 30% of Americans celebrate Valentine’s Day by dining out, but many restaurants’ menus revolve around items with a hefty carbon footprint, such as steak dinners. 
• Jewelry is one of the most popular gifts for Valentine’s Day, but the extractive process of mining for metals and gemstones pollutes water, causes soil erosion and is linked to human-rights injustices.  
• 3 out of 4 people in the U.S. thinks the average American consumes too many natural resources. 
• 67% are currently reducing their personal consumption. 82% are willing but of that 31% need more information. 

Finding Local Adventures  

• In one U.S. survey from 2018, the following were given as the top reasons for traveling:
  • 82% to relax/reduce stress. This year try a walking meditation outside with a friend.
  • 73% to see or do something new. Check out a local site off the beaten path with Atlas Obscura.
  • 55% to learn something new about a place/culture or history. No need to travel far, visit a local outdoor historical or cultural site.
  • 40% to continue a family tradition. Take a hike or geocache in a local park this holiday season.