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Whilst most websites see their traffic ebb away over the Christmas holidays, Facebook hit new highs on both sides of the Atlantic, according to traffic monitoring firm Hitwise.

In the UK, Facebook accounted for one in every 22 website visits on Christmas Day, making it the second most popular site on the web, behind Google.

In the US, Facebook peaked

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on Christmas Eve, accounting for more than 2% of all internet visits.

Hitwise says people logging on to send Christmas greetings and poor weather in the US helped to contribute to the site's popularity. The firm also suggests sheer boredom may have driven more people to the site.

"Boredom of Facebook members may have been exacerbated by the bad weather, with internet users left with little to do but chat with friends online," claims Hitwise's senior online analyst, Heather Hopkins.

"I received five friend requests last week and many holiday wishes. Maybe people were simply bored while stuck at home with family and so escaped to computers to catch up with friends."

The seasonal surge to Facebook helped push social-networking sites past 10% of all internet visits for the first time in the UK during Christmas week. The festive period also saw YouTube overtake Hotmail (or Windows Live Mail) for the first time in this country.