New Mexico leans toward Grinch in Christmas spirit

The team at GetCenturyLink recently released a new report on the states with the most Christmas Spirit, and New Mexico came in 41st place.

"To create our ranking, we analyzed multiple data sets," Hilary Johnson, communications manager, wrote in a release on the study. Some of the metrics used included Twitter data revealing the states that tweet the most about Christmas; streaming data that shows the states that listen to Christmas music the most; and Google Shopping Trends for Christmas cards, Christmas ornaments, wrapping paper and related items.

"Do most families in your neighborhood hang the Christmas lights as soon as Halloween is over? Or is yours the only garlanded, twinkling house on the block?" teh release stated. "The answer probably depends on where you live. Some states, such as Washington, South Dakota, and Utah, go all-out to rock around the Christmas tree and jingle all the way. Alaska, Hawaii, and Florida, not so much."

Some intense data-combing by the GetCenturyLink team yielded surprising results.The top 10 states are marked with a Christmas tree, and the bottom 10 states are marked with a Grinch. 

Several popular Christmas movies were filmed in third-ranked Utah, including the 2000 live-action "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and Hallmark Channel favorites like "Christmas Under Wraps."

Jean Shepherd, author of "A Christmas Story," grew up in Indiana, which came in at 12,; Ohio at number 20 hosts the Christmas Story museum, because the movie was filmed in Cleveland.

Washington state came in first in overall Christmas spirit, but it ranked below average on three of the online metrics we used to create the rankings: Christmas movies, wrapping paper, and Elf on the Shelf.

Alaska may be the coldest and snowiest state, but it ranks below average in every category except one: the state was number three for “gingerbread house” searches.

All but four of the bottom 10 states are hot, dry, and sunny year-round; meanwhile, top-ranked Washington state receives 80 inches of snow annually.

To determine which states in America have the most Christmas spirit, the analysts at GetCenturyLink compared data in two main categories: online activity and area culture. They evaluated those categories using the 10 metrics listed below and finalized the ranking by calculating the weighted average for each state across all metrics.

The 10 categories were Online Activity; Google searches for Christmas movies and gingerbread houses (29  percent); Google shopping trends for wrapping paper, Christmas cards, Christmas ornaments, and “Elf on a Shelf” (28 percent); Christmas music streaming (14.5 percent); Tweeting about Christmas (7 percent); area culture; number of Christmas tree farms per capita (7 percent) and charitable giving (14.5 percent)

The top 10 states for spirit were Washington, South Dakota, Utah, Missouri, Maine, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Virginia and North Carolina. The bottom 10 in descending order were New Mexico, California, Arizona, Minnesota, Nevada, Michigan, New Jersey, Florida, Hawaii and on the bottom, Alaska.

To check out all the results, go to https://www.getcenturylink.com/blog/how-much-does-your-state-love-christmas/