New York’s Surprising ‘Cities For Christmas’ Status

New York City...The Big Apple - The City That Never Sleeps - The Empire City. The City So Nice They Named It Twice.

Home of one of the most famous Christmas Trees each holiday season, the Radio City Rockettes, the infamous FAO Schwarz and Macy's Herald Square, and the city with a lengthy list of 'must see/do' holiday activities. Even with all of this, a recent study doesn't even rank New York City within the Top 10 for best Cities For Christmas, and I think we may know why.

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Wallethub Ranks Top Cities For Christmas Celebrations

As they do each year, Wallethub took a look at cities across the US in order to identify the most 'Christmas-friendly' ones. 28 key indicators were used to compile the list, with areas such as traditions, shopping and costs used to help direct people towards great cities to celebrate the holiday.

The top 5 cities on the 2025 list are Las Vegas (5), Orlando (4), Seattle (3), San Francisco (2) and Atlanta taking the top spot. Key indicators that pushed these cities to the top include gift shops per capita, toy stores and hobby shops, bakeries, holiday decorations and so on.

Cost was one of the primary factors in the study, which is definitely why New York didn't rank as high as expected. According to WalletHub Analyst Chip Lupo:

With inflation making Christmas celebrations, gifts, food and travel more expensive, certain cities are much better for your wallet than others during the holiday. In addition to being affordable, the best cities have a large number of people celebrating, plenty of places for Christians to worship, populations who give generously to charity, and plenty of fun activities to enjoy with family and friends.

New York Ranks 13th on Best Cities For Christmas List

Although New York scored first for toy shops and hobby stores, tied for first for both online giving and Christmas tree farms per capita, and even took the top spot in the 'traditions and fun' category, NYC did not fare well for observance and cost.

SEE ALSO: I've Never Done Any Of These 'Big Three' New York Traditions

New York City ranked number 98 when it comes to observance, and 100 for cost, which definitely pulled the city down quite a few spots from where many might assume. A full breakdown of metrics, weight per category, and more about what helps make the top five just that, check out the WalletHub study, here.