DALLAS — It's supposed to be most wonderful time of the year -- but apparently Dallas' holiday spirit could be described as, and I quote, "Stink.... stank... stunk!"
FinanceBuzz ranked 50 of the country's largest cities to determine which ones were the grinchiest, or had the least holiday spirit.
Dallas decorated the Top 10 naughty list at #7 with an overall score of 29.7, but it's not the only stingy city in Texas. San Antonio's close to the top at #3 (22.7) while Houston wrapped it up with the #10 spot (30.8).
In case you're wondering, New York City is the sour star on top as the country's grinchiest (18.9), while Hartford, Connecticut has the gift of the most spirited in the U.S. (74.8).
So in comparison to almost everyone else, what makes Dallas as cuddly as a cactus and as charming as an eel?
The study focused on five major Christmas-themed categories:
- Community-wide celebrations and decorations
- Holiday shopping
- Holiday season of giving
- Holiday cheer
- Holiday jeer
The first factor focused on the number of holiday events, ice skating rinks, decoration shops and Christmas tree shops per 100,000 people. Dallas' score is higher than San Antonio and Houston's (5.5 vs. 1.1 and 1.2, respectively), but we're way behind Hartford's 20-point score.
"Holiday shopping" looked at the amount of holiday markets, toy stores, gift shops, department stores and shopping centers for the area. Houston has more room to shop 'til they drop than Dallas (3.2 vs 2.4). Meanwhile with a score of 1.3, San Antonio's not dropping from shopping anytime soon.
'Tis the season of giving, hence the third category. This one looked at the number of food banks and homeless shelters in the area in addition to the amount of people that volunteer annually and donate at least $25 to charity.
San Antonio doesn't seem like that cheerful of a giver with its 2.3 score. Meanwhile, Dallas's charitable heart is almost three times as big at 6.5.
Last but not least, there's the holiday cheer and jeer. In other words, how each city's "Elf"-like spirit compared to their Scrooge-like spirit. FinanceBuzz turned to Google Trends to see how many people were searching for things like "Christmas Party" or "Christmas Festival" versus "Christmas sucks" or "bah humbug."
Dallas' holiday spirit isn't too overwhelmed. We got a score of 7 for our cheer versus 8.3 for our jeer. San Antonio's Christmas spirit (4.4) is practically melting under its jeer (13.6), and Ho-Ho-Houston's joy can't put up much of a fight either (7.0 cheer vs. 14.5 jeer).