TORONTO, Dec. 21, 2011 /CNW/ - Leading into the final days before Christmas, holiday cheer across the country is holding strong according to the latest analytics from Canadian Tire's Christmas Spirit Tree. The state-of-the-art, 30-foot tree, located at Toronto's Union Station, has been capturing positive Christmas messages on social media channels including Facebook, Twitter and posts to ChristmasSpiritTree.ca since December 12. The messages are then turned into data which is visualized in the brightness and pattern of the tree's 3,000 LED lights.

The latest Spirit statistics include:

• 145,924 mentions of Christmas Spirit from across Canada have been captured
• 50% of the Christmas messages are coming from Ontario, 18% from BC, 10% from Alberta and 11% from Quebec
• The most mentioned Christmas Spirit words are: Santa, holiday, time, day, year, gift, and snow. Interestingly, a recent survey from Canadian Tire reveals that the first major snowfall (77%) and holiday gift buying (92%) are top activities that spark Canadians Christmas spirit.
• 68% of the Christmas spirit messages are being shared on Twitter, 11% on news sites, 2.5% on forums, 9.5% on blogs, and 8% on Facebook. Consistent with the metrics, the survey revealed that 28% of Canadians share Christmas spirit over social networks.
• 60% of the Christmas messages are from women, 40% from men
• 53% of Christmas spirit messages tracked by the Canadian Tire Christmas Spirit Tree are from Canadians aged 21-35; 5% from Canadians younger than 20; 28% from Canadians 36-50; 13% from Canadians 51 and older

The Christmas Spirit Tree will be on display at Toronto Union Station daily from 6:00 a.m. to midnight EST until December 26 and can be viewed via live stream at www.ChristmasSpiritTree.ca and on screens at Yonge-Dundas Square. In addition to sharing spirit online, Canadians can text "CHRISTMAS" to 70734 to see the tree light up in real-time. There are also four hidden words related to Christmas that will trigger the Tree to light up in a special way.

On request, there's an opportunity for media to tap into the live stream, access b-roll and photos and speak with someone at Canadian Tire about the how the tree works.