A survey conducted by Century Link suggests that New York State ranks among the lowest in holiday spirit.
While it might not be the most scientifically valid method of measuring “Christmas spirit”- something that is pretty subjective anyway- analysts over at GetCenturyLink complied data to rank the 50 states in order of high to low spirit. The top 10 states are marked on the map with Christmas trees and the bottom 10 are marked with the Grinch.
Indicators used for the survey were split into two categories; online activity and area culture. The categories were then evaluated by calculating a weighted average for each state. The two categories were further broken down into:
Online activity, which encompassed:
- Google searches for Christmas movies and gingerbread houses (29%)
- Google shopping trends for wrapping paper, Christmas cards, Christmas ornaments, and “Elf on a Shelf” (28%)
- Christmas music streaming (14.5%)
- Tweeting about Christmas (7%)
and
Area Culture, which encompassed:
- Number of Christmas tree farms per capita (7%)
- Charitable giving (14.5%)
Overall, New York ranked 34th on the list while Washington State ranked first and Alaska ranked last. The majority of the bottom 25 states are the driest and hottest of the states in the union so perhaps that has something to do with their ranking. That in combination with the fact that Christmas tree farms per capita might not be the most accurate indicator of Christmas spirit in those states, for obvious reasons.
However, charitable giving seems like a potentially interesting measurement of the spirit of the season and in fact, according to an analysis of Google searches by the Patch, New York ranks as the 25th most charitable state. A second survey conducted by Fobes in 2017 found that New York was the 15th most charitable state overall and the 6th highest in charitable giving donations over the course of the year. Pretty good if you ask me.
Featured image: getcenturylink.com