Infographic: All We Want for Christmas 2011

December 2^nd. Only 23 days until sleigh bells start ringing and your living room is covered in brightly colored wrapped paper. When you open your mailbox you’re now going to start seeing an array of colored envelopes with Christmas cards tucked safely inside. You’ll start getting invitations to formal and not so formal Christmas parties, where either Santa or the quintessential rum is present. Your kitchen starts to smell of freshly baked cookies, there are pine needles sprinkled beneath the Christmas tree, and the kids are screaming at the television when they see something they desperately want Santa to bring this year. Ah, the holidays.

When I was a kid (back in the late 80’s and early 90’s), my Christmas list consisted of Barbies, Nerf guns, a new bike, a baby doll and some board games. Now kids seem to be begging Santa to bring them video games or an iPad. When I was 8, I never wanted any kind of gadget. I think I was 17 before I had any desire to have a TV in my room, but I digress.  Maybe I was wrong to claim your living room will be covered in wrapping paper on Christmas morning. A lot of adults are asking for an iPad 2, an iPhone 4S, gift cards, cash, or even a vacation. None of these things actually take up a lot of room under the Christmas tree. In fact, most of them can fit safely in a stocking!

Over at SodaHead, they polled their readers to find out about their holiday habits and gift expectations for the 2011 holiday season, and here is what they discovered: