El Paso Makes Santa’s Favorite Cities List

Be sure to leave an extra cookie or two for Santa this year.

Zillow, a free online real estate Website, has compiled a list of Santa’s favorite cities to visit on Christmas Eve and El Paso made the top 10 list. El Paso came in at No. 6, while Phoenix and Albuquerque also made the list.

Regionally, five of the top 10 cities are located in the West and three are in the South. Due to heavy precipitation and a scarcity of fireplaces in high-density cities such as New York and Boston, none of Santa?s favorite cities are located east of the Mississippi.

Methodology Used

Zillow?s analysis used six data variables to determine which cities with a population over 350,000 would provide Santa with the safest working conditions, most optimal sleigh-flying weather, and the ability to deliver the most presents in the least amount of time.

Specific criteria included:

Percentage of homes with a fireplace (fireplaces were used as a proxy for the existence of a chimney). Percentage of single-story homes (hypothesizing that Santa would prefer single-story homes so there?s less likelihood of a workplace injury). Weather (snow and clear days are desirable, and rainy days are undesirable). Percent of homes with children (Santa enjoys spreading cheer to all the good girls and boys). Walk Score (neighborhoods with a higher Walk Score indicate they have a dense population concentration, thus more efficient work for Santa). Lot size (presuming that a bigger lot often means a bigger roof and more room for Santa to land all those reindeer).