There are a lot of signs that the holiday season is well underway around the District, whether it be one of the fantastic Christmas Markets around the DMV area, the iconic tree lighting ceremonies around the District, or even the Christmas music on repeat on the radio; there’s no mistaking what time of the year it is!
However, much to our surprise, a new study , D.C. is the least festive state in the United States.
Why is D.C. the ‘Grinchiest’ state in America?
First, we’d be remiss not to acknowledge and appreciate that the District of Columbia and its residents certainly appreciate being recognized as a state; unfortunately, this still feels a bit insulting.
According to the Google Trends Search data that was examined in the study, the District’s “Total Search Interest Score For All Topics” was 1,275 points, the lowest found in all states.
To put things in perspective, New York, which was the second ‘Grinchiest’ state in America, had a score of 1,602 points, suggesting a much more festive local populace.
The most festive state was West Virginia, which had nearly double the District’s score with a total of 2,479 points.
What was this study’s methodology?
As we’ve mentioned, the study primarily focused on Google Trends search data, specifically, the study looked at how frequently searches were made to a list of dozens of Christmas-related topics.
Some of those topics included:
- Mistletoe
- Christmas Presents
- Gift Exchange
- Gingerbread House
- Christmas Lights
- Winter Wonderland
- Christmas Cookies
- Christmas Decorations
- Christmas Snowman
- Christmas Drinks
Then the study combined the search volume for the dozens of Christmas-related phrases and combined them to create a quantifiable number measuring which states are the most and least festive.
Unfortunately, what is not clear about the study’s methodology, much to the dismay of Washingtonians, is that the data may not be measured on a per capita basis… in other words, D.C. never had a chance if the expectation is that the population of D.C. had just as many people Googling Christmas topics as an entire state!