Looking for a marry little holiday?

Tonight is Christmas Eve. That means New Testament readers around Boston will go to bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads.

As for the Jews, they'll be hitting the town for the biggest singles night of the year.

There's the J Ball at Revolution Rock Bar. There's the dance for 40- and 50-something Jews at the Hyatt Regency Boston. And, of course, there's the mother of all Jewish singles parties - the Matzo Ball, which is being held tonight at the Estate, a nightclub near Boston Common.

According to Matzo Ball promotional materials, if you go to the dance tonight, you might find romance.

More to the point, you might find the person with whom you'll spend the rest of your life.

"I would just like to mention that Jessica and myself met at the Matzo Ball 2003, and are getting married this January," says one of the testimonials on the Matzo Ball website.

"Just wanted to let you know that thanks to the Matzo Ball, I am engaged!" says another.

"That's where I met Nathan . . . next April we will have been married three years!" says yet another.

They go on like that. And you could be next!

But before you start fantasizing about what Mr. or Ms. Right will look like, let me do the simple math for you.

Andy Rudnick, who founded the Matzo Ball in Boston in 1987, says his party is responsible for at least 1,000 marriages. He also guesses that about 200,000 people have attended the dances, which are now held in 21 cities.

Really, that means only about 1 percent of all Matzo Ball attendees have actually met a life partner at the event.

I'm pretty sure a higher percentage of people couple off in the workplace. I'm pretty sure a greater percentage of people have found a spouse at my gym.

Rudnick, who now lives in Florida, doesn't let those numbers stop him from telling me he believes Matzo Ballers should get ready to wed.

"Their expectations should be high," Rudnick says. "Everyone is going for the same purpose."

I guess Rudnick has good reason to believe his own hype. He met his own wife at a Matzo Ball at the old Avalon more than 10 years ago.

To be fair, the Matzo Ball isn't the only singles event/service to boast marriage as an outcome when the odds are slim. Almost all Internet dating companies have sections of their website devoted to that type of propaganda.

Match.com says it doesn't keep marital statistics on hand, but it does devote a section of its website to its successes.

"In December 2005, we decided to get married. Since Jean Ann's family is in Oklahoma and my family is in Washington, it was impossible to get both families together, so we decided to get married in Fiji!"

That's the story of Jean Ann and Sparky, who met on Match.com. There are more like that on the site. No word from the majority of site users who are still dating around.

Nancy McGeoghegan, of the Boston Ski & Sports Club, says that even though her organization has brought a number of members together romantically, she's wary of promising anything to those who show up for the group's many events.

All the group's website says is that "friendships and marriages have 'happened.' " No need to get anybody's hopes up. All she can guarantee is that people will ski.

"We believe that people connect and are attracted to people who share common interests," she says. "We're not really big into saying, 'Hey, join the club and you'll meet someone.' "

Of course, aforementioned reality check aside, the Matzo Ball, dating websites, and parties in general are probably good ways to find love. And when companies facilitate marriages, they have every right to brag.

Customers should just keep their expectations managed. That means the goal for tonight's partiers, faith aside, should be having a merry little Christmas Eve. If you wind up meeting your future spouse during any of these events, consider it a bonus.

If it happens, you'll have beaten the odds.

Meredith Goldstein can be reached at mgoldstein@globe.com.