Holiday Gifts & Gift Baskets Blog

Archive for June, 2007

Established as a way to recognize the significant contribution of secretaries to business operations, Charles Sawyer, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, announced the first National Secretaries Week which was held June 1-7, 1952. National Secretaries Day was declared to occur on the Wednesday of that week (June 4^th, 1952). As the role of secretaries expanded in the work environment, the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP) decided to change the name of Professional Secretaries Week and Day to Administrative Professionals Week and Day in the year 2000. Moved in 1955, these Administrative Professionals are now recognized annually during the last full week of April.

Companies generally show their appreciation to their administrative staff using a wide range of either Administrative Professional or Secretary's Day gifts, luncheons, seminars and other items to promote their professional growth. According to the US Department of Labor, over 4 million people work as administrative assistants and secretaries in the United States.  According to the IAAP, the range of job titles for administrative professionals varies as much as their duties. Their survey showed that 30% hold Administrative Assistant titles, Executive Assistant is held by 18%, 6% are known as Executive Secretary, 5% as Office Manager or Supervisor and 5% hold Secretary Titles. As many as 26% of the respondents reported some other job title with wording such as administrator, coordinator or specialist.  Whatever the job title, these administrative professionals are usually the spokes of the corporate wheel so be sure to recognize their contributions to your company during Administrative Professionals Week.

Holiday Gifts & Gift Baskets offers a wide range of gifts, gourmet food baskets, cookie bouquets and more to send your sentiments of appreciation during Administrative Professionals Week.

The US Postal Service will deliver over 20 billion pieces of mail between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

According to the US Census Bureau, US Christmas tree farmers will earn over $485 million in sales during this holiday season.  Over 20 million cut trees will be purchased this Christmas season with the state of Oregon being the largest supplier. Of course, those trees need to be decorated and what could be better than Christmas ornaments. The US imports over $605 million worth of Christmas ornaments from China to meet the US demand for decorations.

The $3.2 billion game and toy industry thrives during the Christmas holiday season. Nearly 50,000 shopping malls are distributed across the US.

According to Hallmark Research, Christmas is by far the biggest holiday for greeting cards. An estimated 1.9 billion Christmas and holiday cards will be sent to family, friends and loved ones during the December holiday gift season.

Skiing and snowboarding are the most popular winter time sports. Followed by ice hockey and cross country skiing.

Need some help getting in the Christmas spirit?  Consider a trip to Christmas, Florida or to Christmas Island which is an Australian territory in the Pacific Ocean.

The typical US household devours turkey, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberries, bread rolls and of course pumpkin or cherry pie for the big Thanksgiving holiday. So here are some fun facts regarding these delights.  

The average American consumes over 13 pounds of turkey a year and it would be fairly safe to assume that a few pounds were consumed during the Thanksgiving week.  Likewise the average American consumes about 4.7 pounds of sweet potatoes in a one year time period. 

According to the USDA, over 265 million turkeys will be raised in the US this year with about 20% being raised in Minnesota (tops all states in turkey production). US farmers will earn over $2.7 billion from raising turkeys this year. And don't forget the cranberries! The US produces over 650 million pounds of cranberries with over 50% being grown in the great state of Wisconsin. Whether topped with marshmallows or a brown sugar - pecan mix, sweet potatoes are a Thanksgiving staple. Nearly 1.6 billion pounds of sweet potatoes are grown in the US with the majority grown in North Carolina. With 1.1 billion pounds of pumpkins and 256 million pounds of tart cherries being grown each year in the US, Mom should have plenty to bake a fantastic Thanksgiving pie. 

The US average price was $1.07 per pound for a full size frozen turkey in 2005.

Want to get yourself in the Thanksgiving spirit? Well how about a visit to one of the 3 towns named "Turkey" in the US.  So this year maybe you should consider celebrating Turkey Day in Turkey, Texas!

According to the US Census Department, over 36 million American children (ages 5 to 13) will trick or treat door to door on Halloween night.

Many people in the United States carve pumpkins to light up on Halloween.  Chances are that you will be getting a pumpkin grown in Illinois unless you purchase one grown at a local farmer because Illinois leads in US pumpkin production by a huge margin. Consumers will use up over 1 billion pounds of pumpkin as jack o' lanterns, in pies or other ways just this year alone.

The nearly 2500 costume stores and rental shops across the US make dressing up for Halloween easy in fun. Kids and adults alike frequent these Halloween gift and costume shops to make this holiday one of the most popular in the United States.