A sign of the times: Families gather round the tree to click on banners.

New stats for ad activity over the holiday period from Adfonic show Christmas Day was the busiest day of the year for mobile clicks; with volumes 36 per cent higher than the early month peak on December 11th.

A wonderful point as I took this photo to remind me about how important mobile will be in 2012.

My family laughed at me until I pointed out why and now we have the stats to prove it (as well as this rather lovely personal picture.)

As the data shows that Christmas started earlier than normal in 2011. Traffic increased from a higher base at the start of the month, to rise by 23 per cent on Sunday December 11th.

In 2010, volumes only started to increase from December 6th.

In general the data mirrors the wider industry trend of the second Sunday of December being a peak in mobile browsing and app usage. This compares with desktop based online browsing, which typically peaks on the second Monday of December.

Adfonic reckons increased usage in December can be attributed to consumers researching product information, comparing prices and checking store locations while Christmas shopping.

Which is what my nephew was doing.