Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-01-03
COST OF CHRISTMAS.
WHAT AMERICA SPENDS ON THE
HOLIDAY.
More Than Any other Country
Hundreds of Millions Every Year
Turkeys Run Up Into the Mil.
lions to Say Nothing OF Presents.

On Christmas than any other country
| Don't l except England wher
| Christmas is the one holiday an
feasting time that overshadows al
other days? asks Foster Coates writin
in an Eastern paper. No. do moi
England, it is true, celebrates Christ
mas-royally where there is money T.
do it. But the Christmas OF the well
to-do country squire of whom Dicken
wrote is not the Christmas OF million
of English people in London, Liverpool
and Manchester. Roast beef and plum
pudding and boar's head and all tha
sort of thing are not over familiar tt
the masses.
In the United States it is a prett.
poor family that does not get its shar'
OF turkey or chicken with some acces
sories at Christmas.
This was the gist of what veteran
market man said; very Carroll d
Wright when it came to statistics
about game, provisions and the capac
ity of the American people to consume
these and other things.
First he started in with turkeys
There being over 60, 100000 people in
the United States. the number of fam
lilies might be set down at near to 20,.
100000. Allowing that one-half OF
these families had q turkey, the num-
ber would be 10000, 900 turkeys con-
sumed-not an extravagant estimate
Some of these will be large, some
small; but eight pounds per turkey
will be q good enough average and
that makes SOOOOOOO pounds of tur.
key, or more than q pound for each
man, woman and child in the United
States, providing it was all eaten al
one meal and not kept on hand and
picked at for a couple of days. Ter
cents q pound, and good turkey will
bring more, and you see that the tur
key will foot up So 600, 900.
My informant said that turkey was
the biggest item in the Christmas bill
for the reason that Americans who dc
not care much for turkey eat it as
duty at Christmas time. Of course, 6
good many eat chickens and q large
minority can afford game. The man
of figures put the outlay in this way
down at ~, 900 900 and said the figures
were low.
Cranberries you want to figure on
too," said my statistician, and you're
safe to figure on a pound for each fam
lily. Some O! them will take goot
many pounds, and some Of them none
Figure 'em at eight cents a pound"
did. and footed up $1,60O,OOO al
the cranberry outlay. Verify, fgure'
were mounting up, and I wondered
how all this was to be accomplished ir
the way Of eating when money is 81
high.
"Then there's the mince pie" th'
statistician went on. Every ont
doesn't have mince pie, but I'll ven
ture anything that 10.OO0,O 900 of then
will be baked. They are not so popu
lar in this city, but in the country dis
tricts they make shelves upon shelves
of them. That's where the $4,000,
600 come in. If you bought these pie
in the city you would have to pa!
twenty cents or more apiece to
them. Made in a farm house will
some homemade cider and cheal
labor, put 'em down at say eight cent
a pie and you get $500 900 for minc'
pies.
"Now as for beef and mutton" th'
statisticisn was going on, but l He'd
Beef and mutton are every day com
mon place articles OF diet, and besides
I began to get frightened at the man
ner in which the dollar figures wer'
piling up.
next sought one OF the bigges
dealers in the country In Christina
trees, greens and decorations. HI
gave more figures and big ones, too
He admitted that in country place
the people gathered trees and green
and all that. But he held that tn
demand for trees throughout the coun
try and through dealers would amour
| to from 100000 to 100000 trees
The poorest of these 60 to small gro
ceries, the finest to churches and hun
dreds of thousands 60 to homes tina
90 in for decorations at Christmas
Asked the price OF these trees the mer
chant said from twenty-five cents L
ten dollars and more for single tree
Fifty cents on the whole would be
fair price per tree for the whole lot il
striking an average.
Figured on 100000 trees at fift
cents and the bill for Christmas tree
ran up to 5000. 900 more. 1t locke
too big. The tree merchant remarke
that it was not and that this was bi
country. He went on to say that tn
other greens, holly, ivy, mistletoe an
all that sort of thing would foot up
million or two more. put down $1