Things worth reading: 24th December 2009

It's Christmas.

Stop reading about banks.

But if you really want to read something then here's one last story for the year, courtesy of the Sunday Times:

Market-research firms such as Nielsen, Barb, Rajar and the Internet Advertising, along with stats from Google and Amazon, have identified the following lifestyle habits in Britain on Christmas Day:

• Half of us spend Christmas at home

• A third of us travel to spend it with another family member

• 1.2 million spend the day at a hotel (Britian has just over 60 million people)

• 1.8 million people surreptitiously work on Christmas Day

• 15 million (a quarter!) send e-mails on Christmas Day, while 12 million (a fifth) used social networking sites

• Facebook was the most popular site after Google, with six million people changing their status update on the day - roughly the same number who checked their bank balance online (that's 1 in 10 citizens checking their banking!)

• That is because six million people in Britain (1 in 10)  went shopping online on Christmas Day, spending £102 million last year — up 20% on 2007 – and that should reach £120 million this year according to Google

• Three million watch videos online, which might include the Queen’s Christmas message which was first posted on YouTube in 2007, where it was viewed one million times compared to its terrestrial TV viewing figures of seven million

• 24.4 million watch TV on Christmas Day, up by 600,000 viewers from 2007

• 94.2% of Christmas Day viewing by adults aged 16-24 took place in the living room, as did 95.2% of children’s viewing, although 16-24s usually watch 25% less telly than other adults and tend to watch on their bedroom systems

• 22% of us will have leave out carrots for Rudolph

• Those with family get up at about 8:00 and start present opening at 8:20

• Around 11.00 is when the first BlackBerrys fire up as people start secretly working

• The main meal is eaten at 15:24, and the first person falls asleep just before 17:00

• At about the same time, 17:30, we all get hit by waves of nostalgia which leads to getting the board games out at 17:46 (sales were up by 16.5% this year).

• Finally, we’re in bed by 23:39

Have a great Christmas folks and will be back here next week.

Oh yes, and just in case you need to be reminded, get off your facebook for Christmas.