Culture
Where Do Your Christmas Decorations Come From?
The World’s Biggest Exporters of Christmas Decorations
Billions of dollars worth of Christmas decorations are exported around the world each year.
And while they adorn many homes across the globe, you may be surprised to know that a majority of these decorations are manufactured in just a handful of countries.
Using data from the UN Comtrade Database, this festive visualization highlights the world’s top exporters of Christmas decor.
Ranked: Top 10 Exporters of Christmas Decorations
China accounts for 87% of global Christmas decoration exports (excluding candles, electric lighting sets, and natural Christmas trees), with a total export value of $6.62 billion in 2020.
Here are the top 10 countries by export volume:
Rank | Country | Market Share Year 2020 | Export value Year 2020 |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 🇨🇳 China | 87.61% | $6,623,948,022 |
2 | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | 3.95% | $298,587,959 |
3 | 🇵🇱 Poland | 0.91% | $68,670,015 |
4 | 🇮🇳 India | 0.84% | $63,605,927 |
5 | 🇩🇪 Germany | 0.83% | $63,035,762 |
6 | 🇺🇸 United States | 0.77% | $58,045,102 |
7 | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong | 0.51% | $38,344,945 |
8 | 🇧🇪 Belgium | 0.43% | $32,787,984 |
9 | 🇹🇭 Thailand | 0.43% | $32,365,786 |
10 | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 0.33% | $24,580,583 |
China’s market share dwarfs its competitors. Netherlands comes a distant second, capturing only 3.95% of the market, while Poland is third with just 0.91%.
Another interesting fact we can extract from the data is that the top 10 countries own a 96.91% share of the Christmas decoration export market, which leaves just 3.09% of the market to the other 185 countries around the globe.
The Other Side of the Coin: Imports
We’ve covered who the biggest exporters of Christmas decorations are, but this begs the question—which countries are importing all of this festive fare?
Here are the top five countries by import volume:
Rank | Country | Market Share Year 2019 | Market Share Year 2020 | Import value Year 2020 |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 🇺🇸 United States | 58.17% | 57.34% | $3,054,607,847 |
2 | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 5.18% | 5.07% | $270,152,835 |
3 | 🇨🇦 Canada | 4.54% | 5.00% | $266,304,196 |
4 | 🇩🇪 Germany | 2.69% | 2.99% | $159,401,785 |
5 | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | 2.55% | 2.93% | $156,000,611 |
The United States is by far the biggest importer of Christmas decorations, importing 57.34% of the total market share of Christmas decorations with a total value of $3 billion.
The top five importers have a market share of 73.33% with a total value of $3.9 billion.
Why Are Christmas Decorations More Expensive This Year?
Yiwu, a Chinese city situated 175 miles southwest of Shanghai, is the world’s biggest hub for manufacturing Christmas decorations, accounting for nearly 80% of the Christmas products exported from China.
Factories in Yiwu are suffering a shortage of raw materials which is causing an increase in production costs.
On top of that, since mid-October, Yiwu, like many other cities, has been affected by China’s ongoing electricity shortage, which has forced manufacturers to install power generators or even stop their manufacturing activities altogether.
As if that wasn’t enough, shipping from China has become a lot more expensive in 2021. Over the past year, it’s become 4x more expensive to ship a standard container from China to Europe.
Markets
Charted: Marvel’s Box Office Rise (and Fall?)
How poorly did ‘The Marvels’ perform in its opening weekend, and how do other Marvel box office returns compare?

Charted: Marvel’s Box Office Rise (and Fall?)
Disney’s investment in Marvel Entertainment has earned it tens of billions of dollars, but the latest Marvel box office performances are starting to prove worrying.
On November 10, The Marvels released to movie theaters as the 33rd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). After one weekend, it had earned just $46 million domestically, making it the lowest-ever debut for an MCU movie.
This chart shows the rise and fall of Marvel box office earnings using data tracked by The Numbers as of November 12.
Marvel Box Office Earnings (2008‒2023)
The MCU was officially kickstarted with the release of Iron Man in 2008, a well-reviewed hit that earned $585 million worldwide at the box office.
Over the next few years, Marvel has released multiple movies in the same universe, building up characters and stories in “phases” and capitalizing with crossover releases. Phase 1 ended with 2012’s The Avengers—The first Marvel movie to earn more than $1 billion.
Here are Marvel’s movie releases in order of recency, as well as their estimated production budgets, box office hauls, and percentage of positive reviews:
Release Date | Film | Production Budget | Opening Weekend (Domestic) | Box Office (Worldwide) | Review Score (Rotten Tomatoes) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nov. 10, 2023 | The Marvels | $275M | $46M | TBD | 61 |
May 05, 2023 | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 | $250M | $118M | $845M | 82 |
Feb. 17, 2023 | Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania | $200M | $106M | $464M | 46 |
Nov. 11, 2022 | Black Panther: Wakanda Forever | $250M | $181M | $854M | 83 |
Jul. 08, 2022 | Thor: Love and Thunder | $250M | $144M | $761M | 63 |
May 06, 2022 | Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | $200M | $187M | $952M | 73 |
Dec. 17, 2021 | Spider-Man: No Way Home | $200M | $260M | $1,908M | 93 |
Nov. 05, 2021 | Eternals | $200M | $71M | $402M | 47 |
Sep. 03, 2021 | Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings | $150M | $75M | $432M | 92 |
Jul. 09, 2021 | Black Widow | $200M | $80M | $380M | 79 |
Jul. 02, 2019 | Spider-Man: Far From Home | $160M | $93M | $1,132M | 90 |
Apr. 26, 2019 | Avengers: Endgame | $400M | $357M | $2,789M | 94 |
Mar. 08, 2019 | Captain Marvel | $175M | $153M | $1,130M | 79 |
Jul. 06, 2018 | Ant-Man and the Wasp | $130M | $76M | $623M | 87 |
Apr. 27, 2018 | Avengers: Infinity War | $300M | $258M | $2,048M | 85 |
Feb. 16, 2018 | Black Panther | $200M | $202M | $1,336M | 96 |
Nov. 03, 2017 | Thor: Ragnarok | $180M | $123M | $850M | 93 |
Jul. 07, 2017 | Spider-Man: Homecoming | $175M | $117M | $878M | 92 |
May 05, 2017 | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 | $200M | $147M | $869M | 85 |
Nov. 04, 2016 | Doctor Strange | $165M | $85M | $676M | 89 |
May 06, 2016 | Captain America: Civil War | $250M | $179M | $1,152M | 91 |
Jul. 17, 2015 | Ant-Man | $130M | $57M | $519M | 83 |
May 01, 2015 | Avengers: Age of Ultron | $365M | $191M | $1,395M | 76 |
Aug. 01, 2014 | Guardians of the Galaxy | $170M | $94M | $771M | 92 |
Apr. 04, 2014 | Captain America: The Winter Soldier | $170M | $95M | $714M | 90 |
Nov. 08, 2013 | Thor: The Dark World | $150M | $86M | $645M | 67 |
May 03, 2013 | Iron Man 3 | $200M | $174M | $1,215M | 79 |
May 04, 2012 | The Avengers | $225M | $207M | $1,515M | 91 |
Jul. 22, 2011 | Captain America: The First Avenger | $140M | $65M | $371M | 80 |
May 06, 2011 | Thor | $150M | $66M | $449M | 77 |
May 07, 2010 | Iron Man 2 | $170M | $128M | $621M | 72 |
Jun. 13, 2008 | The Incredible Hulk | $138M | $55M | $266M | 67 |
May 02, 2008 | Iron Man | $186M | $102M | $585M | 94 |
Median | $193M | $118M | $808M | 83 |
Throughout the years, Marvel’s movie releases garnered greater box office draws and critical praise, culminating in Avengers: Endgame earning $2.79 billion at the box office and becoming one of the highest grossing movies of all time.
But subsequent releases have been hampered, first by the COVID-19 pandemic and then by a mix of poor reviews, scaled-back marketing campaigns, and oversaturation. While the first three phases of the MCU were limited only to Marvel’s feature film releases, Phase Four (2021‒2022) included eight television shows released on Disney+.
The Marvels, the sequel to the billion-dollar-grossing Captain Marvel and the Disney+ show Ms. Marvel, is the third movie in Phase Five. The phase was planned to span five movies and seven television shows, but Marvel’s recent underperformance and production delays from labor strikes in Hollywood are already causing Disney to re-evaluate its release plans.
Will Marvel be able to climb back into pole position at the global box office?
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