Scrooge-like stature

Dallas suburb gets big lump of coal on list of best Christmas cities

How could a town with a tree this pretty make the naughty list?

Photo courtesy of The City of Garland

With a made-for-the-holidays name, you’d think Garland would be one of the country’s best cities for Christmas. But by one measure, that’s not so. Garland sinks to a Grinch-level No. 93 in a new ranking of the 100 largest U.S. cities for celebrating a festive and affordable Christmas.

Personal finance website WalletHub compared the 100 cities based on 33 metrics, such as Christmas events per capita, average price for a ticket to a Christmas party, and shopping centers and outlet malls per capita.

WalletHub, which released the list December 17, loaded all of that data into five carts: traditions and fun, holiday observance, generosity, shopping, and costs. In the shopping category, Garland ranks 98th out of 100. Garland’s last-place showing in one basket — gift shops per capita — drags down its shopping score.

The city performs slightly better in the traditions and fun category (No. 96), observance category (No. 84), and costs category (No. 70). Its best position comes in the generosity category (No. 46).

To be fair, Garland isn’t a bah-humbug ’burb. For instance, Garland’s Christmas on the Square makes spirits bright with more than 100,000 holiday lights (and made CultureMap's list of must-see lights in the area), while Bass Pro Shops hosts Santa’s Wonderland, and Magic 11th Street presents the Magical Christmas Candlelight Home Tour.

Here are the overall rankings for other cities in Dallas-Fort Worth:

Dallas, No. 18
Fort Worth, No. 49
Plano, No. 59
Arlington, No. 85
Irving, No. 87

At No. 13 on the WalletHub list, Austin unwraps the gift of being the No. 1 place in Texas for celebrating Christmas. It receives a No. 8 ranking in the shopping category and a No. 16 ranking in the traditions and fun category. But it earns lower grades in the observance (No. 44) and generosity (No. 73) groupings.

Elsewhere in Texas, Houston holds the No. 23 spot overall, with San Antonio at No. 25. Among the 100 largest cities, Atlanta shines as the star atop the Christmas tree with a No. 1 ranking.

wallethub rankings lists holidays

happy go lucky plano

Dallas neighbor dazzles on new list of happiest cities in America

Photo courtesy of Visit Plano

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A new happiness study has ranked Plano one of the happiest cities in America this year, and it once again landed on top as the happiest city in Texas.

Plano has moved up on the list and ranks as the 16th happiest U.S. city in 2026. Last year, it was 17th.

WalletHub determined the happiest cities in America based on 29 relevant metrics based on "positive-psychology research" across three main categories: emotional and physical wellbeing, income and employment, and community and environment. As with most WalletHub studies, it compared the 182 most populous U.S. cities.

Fremont, California claimed the top spot as the happiest city nationwide for another year. Bismark, North Dakota and Scottsdale, Arizona, respectfully, rounded out the top three.

Here's how WalletHub ranked Plano across the three key dimensions:

No. 15 – Emotional and physical wellbeing
No. 22 – Community and environment
No. 72 – Income and employment

Plano and its residents have continued improving their city year after year, whether its through opening new bakeries and restaurants, inviting fun pop-ups for locals, or having a strong job market.

Plano's happiness far outshines the rest of North Texas; according to WalletHub, Irving is the 70th happiest city in the country, the third-happiest in Texas, and the second-happiest city in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro. Garland ranked farther behind as No. 92 nationally, and more DFW cities ranked even lower: Grand Prairie (No. 106), Dallas (No. 111), Fort Worth (No. 113), and Arlington (No. 119).

The report additionally found that Dallasites spend the third-most amount of time at work in the nation. The city ranked No. 180 in the national analysis of U.S. cities with the "fewest work hours."

WalletHub also emphasized that money doesn't buy happiness — after a certain point.

"For decades, researchers have explored the science of happiness and identified several core factors, including mental well-being, physical health, strong social ties, job satisfaction, and financial stability," the report said. "Still, income has its limits — studies show that earning more than $75,000 a year does not lead to greater happiness."

Six-figure earners in Plano aren't necessarily as happy as those who don't make as much, as a separate financial study from SmartAsset revealed these big earners are only taking home about $72,653 after taxes and adjusted for the cost of living.

This is how other Texas cities ranked in the report:

No. 39 – Austin
No. 128 – Houston
No. 135 – Lubbock
No. 137 – El Paso
No. 140 – Laredo
No. 143 – Amarillo
No. 150 – Brownsville
No. 154 – San Antonio
No. 155 – Corpus Christi

wallethub plano reports