First Coast

GetCenturyLink Accuses Florida Of Having Less Christmas Cheer Than Most States

WJCT News | By Bill Bortzfield

Published December 16, 2019 at 12:49 PM EST

Friends, neighbors and families gathered at Hemming Park on Dec. 4 to celebrate the lighting of Downtown Jacksonville's Christmas Tree.

Are there a bunch of Scrooges in Florida or here on the First Coast?

If you read Internet and TV provider GetCenturyLink's latest rankings, you might come away thinking so.

The company ranked Christmas cheer in the 50 states, listing Florida in 47th place with only California, Hawaii and Nevada scoring worse.

“Sunnier states like Hawaii, Nevada, and Florida rank low for festive zeal,” GetCenturyLink alleged, saying its data analysis team compared data in two main categories: online activity and area culture.

GetCenturyLink looked at things like Google searches for Christmas movies and online shopping trends for festive items like wrapping paper.

St. Augustine is celebrating the holidays with Nights of Lights.

Also weighted were the amount of charitable donations, the number of tweets related to Christmas and the number of Christmas tree farms per capita.

Tennessee was ranked tops in the nation for having the most Christmas Spirit, followed by North Carolina and Utah.

Two children enjoy one of the displays at the Deck the Chairs holiday display in Jacksonville Beach.

Slideshow: Jacksonvlle Beach's Deck The Chairs

So is Florida really more of a “bah humbug” type of state or does CenturyLink have it all wrong?

Sound off on the WJCT Facebook page, and while you’re at it, how about posting photos of some Christmas decorations?

St. Augustine sure looks to be getting into the holiday spirit to us. What do you think? Does Florida have less Christmas cheer than most states?

Bill Bortzfield can be reached at bbortzfield@wjct.org, 904-358-6349 or on Twitter at @BortzInJax.