Philadelphia, PA -- While Santa makes his list and checks it twice, the rest of us can check out a new book chock-full of seasonal statistics.

"The Christmas List" (Quirk) has some surprising Noel numbers such as this one: 569 American children were hospitalized in 1997 for ingesting Christmas ornaments.

Another Christmas number-cruncher: 34,335,809 real Christmas trees are displayed in the average holiday season compared to 40,694,463 fake trees.

-- Eight states have a town called Santa Claus.

-- Twenty-thousand Salvation Army kettles are placed out each year and bell-ringers spend 4.6 million hours monitoring the kettles.

-- 5,340 Visa cards are swiped in America each minute between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

-- Finally, 4 million tons of wrapping paper trash is collected each year.

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More Weird News From 2003-12-22 The day's offbeat stories from around the world. • Around The Weird: Bizarre News Briefs • Flash Lites: Rip 'N' Read Pop Culture Recap • Christmas Lites • Deck The Halls With Christmas Stats • Sean Astin and Dominic Monaghan: 'We Predicted Orlando Bloom's Success' • Snowmaking Helps Magician Make Cold Hard Cash • 'Mr. Belvedere' Mom Is Up For A Grammy Award • Santa Needs A Personal Trainer • Keiko The Whale Spent Last Days Wailing • Prophet Declares: 'Someone's Gonna Burn The Statue Of Liberty's Dress' • A Gym Custom-Made For Couch Potatoes   « Current Weird News Stories