San Francisco is always beautiful during the holidays, with multiple light displays, large Christmas trees in Union Square and Civic Center plaza, and many festive events and performances. While we may be a little biased that SF is a great place for the holidays, a new ranking has placed San Francisco as the second-best city for Christmas in the United States.
The study was conducted by WalletHub and analyzed U.S. cities across several factors, including the number of gift shops, Christmas tree farms, and more, to determine the “best” city based on the criteria. The metrics were divided into five key dimensions: traditions, fun, observance, generosity, and cost. From there, they assigned 28 total metrics, each with a different weight for metrics that were deemed more important. Finally, each city was given a score to determine the overall ranking.
Check out what cities made the top 10:
- Atlanta
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- Orlando
- Las Vegas
- St. Louis
- Miami
- Pittsburgh
- New Orleans
- Cincinnati
San Francisco was ranked 3rd for the traditions and fun category and second for generosity. Unsurprisingly, SF was one of the most expensive cities in terms of cost, at 94th place. San Francisco was tied for first place for the most online giving per capita, tied with Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Seattle. San Francisco also had a notable number of candy stores and chocolatiers per capita, along with the fourth most holiday attractions. Seattle, a fellow West Coast city, ranked 3rd overall due to its high generosity and traditions scores. Los Angeles ranked 16th overall, coming in 7th for traditions and fun.
You can find the full study on the best cities for Christmas here.