Holidays
Study Reveals Utah Has The Most Christmas Spirit & D.C. Is Feeling Grinchy
See where your state falls on the list in 2020.
It seems there are some places you can fully deck the halls, while other spots around the country may need a visit from three Christmas spirits to get some holiday joy. To figure out where exactly your home lands, some fun and festive new research has broken down which states have the most and least Christmas spirit in 2020.
GetCenturyLink, an internet, television, and phone service company, recently looked into whether or not "2020 has brought out your inner Grinch," which is certainly understandable right now if it did, and found that certain parts of the country are little less jolly than others.
To get to their findings, which the company has been putting out since 2017, GetCenturyLink looked at data for all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia. The company analyzed Google searches for Christmas movies and gingerbread houses, online shopping trends, Christmas music streams, and Christmas tweets. Researchers also looked at which states had the most Christmas tree farms as well as data on states' charitable giving over the last year. And GetCenturyLink ultimately found that Utah has the most Christmas spirit.
Top 10 States With The Most Christmas Spirit
- Utah
- Idaho
- Wisconsin
- North Carolina
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Nebraska
- North Dakota
- West Virginia
- Arkansas
All of the top states reigned supreme when it came to categories such as Christmas movies, gingerbread houses, Christmas music, and charitable giving. An interesting takeaway is that most of these states have snowy winters, which can certainly help put you in the mood to watch a bunch of holiday Hallmark movies and sip on hot cocoa.
While snowy spots are more likely to be in the mood to roast chestnuts, states with milder climates may have some humbug spirits about the holidays. According to GetCenturyLink, spots like Florida are a bit on the gloomy end when it comes to Christmas, ranking at #50. But New York, the home of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree and a city that gets a whole lot of snow, rounded out the bottom 10 at #41, so it's not all weather related.
Top 10 States With The Least Christmas Spirit
41. New York
42. Texas
43. Arizona
44. California
45. Delaware
46. Nevada
47. Colorado
48. New Mexico
49. Hawaii
50. Florida
And finally, the District of Columbia, although not a state but perhaps where the Grinch lived before he found his Christmas spirit, came in at the bottom at #51. But when you think about the kind of year the D.C. has had, especially on Pennsylvania Avenue, who can blame them?
Of course, these results should not impact how you and your family celebrate the holidays. However, it's nice to know where your home state lies in the spirit overall. And, of course, with everything 2020 has thrown at us, it's understandable the holidays feel a bit ehh this year.
While no one is expecting anyone to be as merry as The Whos of Whoville, simply just getting into the Christmas spirit may be easier said than done. Watching a few Christmas movies either on Disney+, Netflix, or Freeform's 25 Days of Christmas could help. Or baking some Christmas cookies; nothing smells more like the holidays than an aroma of a sweet, baked cookie. And while in-person visits aren't doable this year, Zoom chats with Santa could help keep your little one's Christmas spirit alive.
However you look at it, we can all probably take a lesson from Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas to heart this year. As the late author wrote, "...Christmas he thought doesn't come from a store, maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more.”