The holiday season might be almost over, but I’m grabbing onto what’s left of it with pretty much everything that I’ve got. I’m willing to be that the most festive cities in America probably are, too — and hey, thanks to Amazon, I now know exactly what those cities are. (And even better, I live near one of them!) According to TODAY.com, the online mega-retailer recently released its ranking of the top 10 most holiday-happy places in the nation, and there’s plenty there to celebrate.
It’s worth noting that the measure of how festive each place is was determined solely from the cities’ streaming habits; apparently the top 10 all streamed the most holiday-related movies, television shows, and specials on their Fire TVs in the nation. Obviously that’s a fairly narrow view of what makes something “festive,” but hey, at least it’s quantifiable. Interestingly, Washington state seems to be particularly holiday-centric; four of the top 10 are located there. I feel you, Washington. The holidays are pretty terrific.
So exactly what are all these wonderfully festive places streaming? Amazon also released the top five most-streamed holiday movies along with the results, so it’s probably safe to assume that at these cities’ holiday programming includes some combination of the following: Christmas Classics, Vol. 1, featuring eight holiday movies like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer; Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas; Arthur’s Perfect Christmas (as in, Arthur the aardvark; Elf (of course); and a Dr. Seuss bundle featuring both How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Horton Hears a Who.
Check out the top five cities below, and head on over to TODAY.com to see the full list.
1. Salt Lake City, Utah
Congratulations, Salt Lake City! You streamed more holiday-related programming on Fire TV than anyone else in the nation this year! That said, though, there do appear to be a number of delightful holiday activities in and around the city, as well: The Festival of Trees, for example, which features a mind-blowing 700 gorgeously decorated Christmas trees and raises money for the Primary Children’s Hospital, or ZooLights! at Hogle Zoo.
2. Seattle, Wash.
Not going to lie: The holiday event in Seattle I’m most interested in is the Model Train Festival, which runs from Dec. 21 through Jan. 1. It’s celebrating 20 years this year, because people really, really love their model trains.
3. Santa Clara, Calif.
Santa Clara kicked off the holiday season back on Dec. 4 with the lighting of the community tree and a big ol’ shindig at the seasonal outdoor ice rink — including an appearance from Olympic figure skater Brian Boitano, which means that I will now have “What Would Brian Boitano Do?” stuck in my head for the rest of the day.
4. Providence, RI
I will always have a soft spot for New England holidays; I grew up there, after all, so when I get nostalgic about the holidays, that’s what it all looks like in my head. Provvy has some particularly nice holiday events, including a holiday lantern walking tour and an event called Sparkle at the historic Blithewold Mansion. Sparkle is described as a “marshmallow-roasting-Christmas-carol-singing-strolling-through-the-twinkling-garden-paths event,” which sounds positively delightful to me.
5. Spokane, Wash.
Spokane may not be the first city that comes to mind for festivities, but on top of their apparent love of streaming holiday programs, there’s plenty to do there to get your holiday cheer on — including the chance to meet some actual reindeer.
Check out more at TODAY.com.
Images: a4gpa, ashatsea, dwolfgra, goaliej54, chrstphre/Flickr
