Minnesota Named One Of The 'Grinchiest' States In The Country

On the heels of Duluth being named one of the best Christmas towns in the country, a new survey claims Minnesota is one of the grinchiest states in the union. Apparently all of that holiday cheer just wasn't enough to give the Land of 10,000 Lakes a better position in a new survey from CenturyLink, which ranks how much each state loves Christmas.

Despite being home to the nation's largest free walk-through holiday light display and a number of other big holiday events and attractions around the state, the new study ranks Minnesota as the 7th grinchiest state in the country. How did they come to these findings?

CenturyLink analyzed data that included online activity and area culture, but I personally feel like their criteria missed some key things. The online activity they looked at included Google searches for Christmas movies and gingerbread houses, Google shopping trends for Christmas cards, Christmas ornaments, and "Elf on a Shelf", Christmas music streaming, and tweeting about Christmas. The "area culture" data set is where I think they ignored a major factor. The only components in the "area culture" category that they looked at included number of Christmas tree farms per capita and charitable giving. That's right, they didn't take into consideration other cultural things like major holiday activities, festivals, or attractions, which seems like a big miss when analyzing local culture to me.

Beside the events in Duluth like Bentleyville and the Christmas City of the North Parade, long-running events like Holidazzle in Minneapolis, The Canadian Pacific Holiday Train, Brainerd's Sertoma Winter Wonderland, and Mankato's Kiwanis Holiday Lights are part of a long list of Christmas events and attractions around Minnesota that weren't factored into CenturyLink's findings.

Regardless of my personal opinions about their methodology, Minnesota falls into the bottom 10 of the list of states that love Christmas, while Wisconsin appears in the top 15, showing up at 14 on the list. Here are the rankings of each end of the spectrum, according to their study: