NEW YORK (WWTI) – For the fifth year in a row Century Link has uncovered which states have the most Christmas spirit.

In the Century Link report, Christmas spirit was measured with custom-weighted percentages.

The report also used Pollfish to survey 1,000 Americans on attitudes and habits around celebrating Christmas, with data gathered in September 2022.

Percentages to assign rankings are:

  • 29%: Google searches for, “Christmas movies” and “Gingerbread houses”;
  • 28%: Google Shopping trends for, “Wrapping paper”, “Christmas cards”, “Christmas ornaments”, and “Elf on a Shelf”;
  • 14.5%: Christmas music streaming;
  • 7%: Tweets about Christmas during December 2021;
  • 21.5%: Christmas-related cultural markers;
  • 7%: Number of Christmas tree farms per capita; and
  • 14.5%: Charitable giving in the last documented tax year.

New York comes in at number 48 on the list with a bit of Scrooge or Grinch-like quality, but the Empire State comes in at the top of the list for most tax-deductible charitable giving, ranked third, with Texas coming in second and California in first, according to the IRS.

However, NY’s neighbor to the south, Pennsylvania, ranked in the top 5.

The full 2022 Christmas spirit list ranked from most to least:

State2022 RankState2022 Rank
New Hampshire1North Carolina27
Wisconsin2Idaho28
Utah3Missouri29
West Virginia4Kansas30
Pennsylvania5Louisiana31
Ohio6Washington32
Kentucky7Tennessee33
Indiana8California34
New Jersey9Texas35
Delaware10Iowa36
Vermont11New Mexico37
Michigan12Arkansas38
Alaska13Georgia39
Massachusetts14Colorado40
North Dakota15Maryland41
Nebraska16Florida42
South Dakota17Virginia43
Maine18Oklahoma44
Rhode Island19Nevada45
Connecticut20Wyoming46
Arizona21Mississippi47
Illinois22New York48
Montana23Oregon49
Minnesota24Alabama50
Hawaii25District of Columbia51
South Carolina26  

Century Link’s report also includes the follow statistics:

  • Happiness is the strongest emotion people feel about Christmas with 57% saying it’s the one time of year they get to see loved ones.
  • A belief in Santa: most say they stopped believing between the ages of 5 and 9.
  • Holiday plans are broken down by generation with 31% of Gen Z and 33% of Millennials planning to host family at home, while 37% of Gen X and 47% of Baby Boomers plan to stay home and have no visitors.
  • Christmas since the COVID-19 pandemic: 43% haven’t changed the way they spend the holiday and 30% report making a more significant effort to see family.
  • Keeping Christmas Traditions: most Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X plan to keep the same traditions, while 50% of Boomers keep fewer traditions than before.

Christmas spending is also broken down by generation in the report with 33% of Gen Z and 30% of Millennials spending more, 41% of Gen X spending less and 29% of Baby Boomers spending far less-but an equal amount is spending slightly more.

Century Link’s full report is available on their website.