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It's tart and grows in sand, yet Americans love the cranberry

What would the big winter holidays – and there's one coming up Thursday – be without jellied cranberry sauce, if not less red and jiggly? Well, one could add ... less traditional, too. Year after year, millions of Americans spoon the sauce, much of it in the shape of a stubby log, straight out of a can and onto their Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner plates next to the roast turkey and stuffing. Industry leader Ocean Spray Inc., which annually sells about 86 million cans of the stuff, has compiled a list of facts about the "lure of the log." A few of them:

Gallons of jellied sauce consumed in the US every holiday season 5.06 million

Percentage of annual cranberry sales in jellied form 75%

Percentage of Americans who have cranberry sauce with Thanksgiving dinner 94%

Percentage of Americans who serve store-bought (vs. homemade) sauce at Thanksgiving 74%

Average number of cranberries per can of sauce 200

Number of cranberries consumed each holiday season 10.8 billion