Feast your eyes
3 Dallas-area cities gobble up top spots among best U.S. places for Thanksgiving
Texans still looking for the best place to enjoy a Thanksgiving feast without breaking their banks might want to head to Plano, Irving, or Dallas. The three cities rank highly on a new list of the best places to go for Thanksgiving.
The study, published by WalletHub, compares the top 100 largest U.S. cities across 20 key metrics, including the cost of Thanksgiving dinner, number of delayed flights, and even forecast precipitation.
Atlanta, Georgia ranks No. 1 on the list, with Orlando, Florida; Las Vega, Nevada; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Gilbert, Arizona rounding out the top five.
Plano ranks No. 7 on the list, while Irving and Dallas took the ninth and 13th spots, respectively. Other North Texas cities that made the list include Garland (No. 24), Arlington (No. 44), and Fort Worth, which just barely makes it into the top 100, landing at No. 84.
Other cities around Texas to make the list are:
- Corpus Christi (No. 25)
- Laredo (No. 31)
- San Antonio (No. 32)
- Austin (No. 33)
- Houston (No. 53)
- El Paso (No. 64)
- Lubbock (No. 85)
The average American spends about $301 during the five-day Thanksgiving period, according to a list of Thanksgiving fun facts compiled by WalletHub. Annually, Americans as a whole spend an estimated $835 million on Thanksgiving turkeys, with 46 million turkeys killed for the holiday.
In addition to the cities’ overall ranking, WalletHub revealed the cities’ rankings for the individual categories they were evaluated by. Five of those categories include Thanksgiving Celebrations and Traditions, Affordability, Safety and Accessibility, Giving Thanks, and Thanksgiving Weather Forecast.
Surely the big Cowboys game with Jonas Brothers' halftime show factors into the DFW "celebrations and traditions" score, right?
Dallas and Irving are tied at No. 4 on the list for having the best Thanksgiving Weather Forecast (which calls for a high of 61 this year, according to WFAA).
Other Dallas rankings include:
- No. 13 for Thanksgiving Celebrations and Traditions
- No. 18 for Affordability
- No. 93 for Safety and Accessibility
- No. 37 for Giving Thanks
No. 32-ranking San Antonio has these rankings on the list:
- No. 46 for Thanksgiving Celebrations and Traditions
- No. 2 for Affordability
- No. 66 for Safety and Accessibility
- No. 85 for Giving Thanks
- No. 26 for Thanksgiving Weather Forecast
The state’s No. 33-ranking capital, Austin, had an average ranking for each category:
- No. 41 for Thanksgiving Celebrations and Traditions
- No. 19 for Affordability
- No. 42 for Safety and Accessibility
- No. 82 for Giving Thanks
- No. 36 for Thanksgiving Weather Forecast.
The city of Houston ranked in the top 10 for Affordability but didn’t score highly in any other category:
- No. 48 for Thanksgiving Celebrations and Traditions
- No. 7 for Affordability
- No. 88 for Safety and Accessibility
- No. 58 for Giving Thanks
- No. 43 for Thanksgiving Weather Forecast.
Fort Worth was in the top 5 for weather but hit the bottom 10 for safety:
- No. 87 for Thanksgiving Celebrations and Traditions
- No. 31 for Affordability
- No. 95 for Safety and Accessibility
- No. 52 for Giving Thanks
- No. 4 for Thanksgiving Weather Forecast.
You can view the full list and find more information about the 100 best U.S. places for Thanksgiving here.