Happiness Tops List of Things Americans Want for Holidays

Is happiness inside any of these boxes?
Wait 'til Christmas to find out! From A Simple Man.

Yes, it's that time of year again! Can you hear those jingle bells? They start ringing earlier and earlier, and apparently now you can hear them (or at least a survey about them) even before Halloween! Business News Daily reports on a recent survey of American adults' holiday wishes. Peace and happiness came in at number one, followed by laptops, iPads, and iPods.

I'm having trouble finding similar wishlist surveys from previous years. Most of them only consider actual consumer products, like this one from 2009, which lists the Nintendo Wii at the top. It would be interesting to see if "peace and happiness" has gone up or down on people's wishlists, but apparently most surveyors don't think to ask about feelings like that. Though of course if you know of a good survey, link to it in the comments!

At any rate, it seems to me that these are positive results. With "peace and happiness" ahead of consumer products, adult Americans may have their priorities in order. Without data from previous years, though, we can't see if this is only because of the Great Recession.

What do YOU think? And what are you wishing for this holiday season, even if it seems like it's still a year away? (Also remember to follow me on Digg! I just started using that site, so I may not know what I'm doing!)