david-noel:

theeconomist:

Daily chart: Christmas gifts. Today’s chart shows a general correlation between Christmas spending and wealth. The Dutch spend surprisingly little on their gifts; lightly-taxed Luxemborgers, by contrast, are exceedingly generous outliers.

Can I play the smartass for a sec? Why the Dutch spend little?

It’s because for the Dutch, December 5th is the bigger holiday than Christmas. It’s called Sinterklaas and also applies to the northern part of Belgium, Flanders.

Taking that a step further, I wonder how the overall annual spending on gifts compares to spending on Christmas gifts.

(I’m sure that’s not the only cultural difference here…)