Pandora has decided to drive a wedge between us as a country during the holidays, lighting a cigar by the Christmas tree, Uncle Lewis-style. The site presented a map of the United States that displayed what percentage of each region's residents were listening to Christmas music compared to more typical fare during the holiday season. If the goal of the competition was to be the most spirited state via listening to more, congratulations to Utah, which had 19 percent of users in its borders jamming to holiday chestnuts this season.
Interestingly, it does seem as if the more wintry the environment, the more likely it is that residents are going to listen to Christmas music. The map of the continental 48 shows that the map tends to become a deeper shade of blue the farther north you travel. While Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont were keeping things cheery, states such as Nevada and New Mexico avoided Christmas music, listening at an 8 percent rate. Texas only had a 9 percent listening rate and we know they take the Christ thing as serious as anyone, so we're going to blame the warm weather.
Pandora provided some other interesting statistics as well. Perhaps the holiday music preference also has something to do with gender, aside from geography. The site suggests that women create Christmas music playlists at a rate of 88 percent more than men. The greatest stat was Pandora's findings on what day outside of the holiday season finds people listening to the most holiday music. Remarkably, tons of people actually celebrate "Christmas in July" on July 25, while listening to carols of course.
