Where Do Your Christmas Decorations Come From?

Billions of dollars worth of Christmas decorations are exported around the world each year. And while they adorn many homes across the globe, Visual Capitalist’s Raul Amoros notes 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:

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:

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.