December brings Hanukkah on the 25th day of Kislev, Christmas on the 25th, Kwanzaa on the 26th, and many more holidays throughout the month. However, there is one holiday tradition everyone can enjoy all month long: dazzling holiday light displays! Whether you prefer to take in your neighborhood’s holiday lights while walking hand in hand with your kids, or it’s more your style to drive down well-lit streets listening to your favorite holiday hits as your breath fogs up the windows, you can easily find the neighborhood nearest you by browsing our map of holiday light displays around the snow globe.

In addition to finding the neighborhoods decking their halls and homes this month, discover which countries other than the U.S. light up in December, the most outrageous neighborhoods of 2017, and which states spend the most money on staying lit this time of year.

View Holiday Light Displays in a full screen map

Browse the map to see pretty pics of holiday light displays and then read on for the places that are celebrating the most during this wonderful time of year.

Eventful of Holiday Cheer

Much like our piece on Halloween events, which showed where in the world the spooky holiday was celebrated, this holiday light displays map was made in part due to Eventful — the online calendar and events discovery service. From December 1st all the way through the 31st, Eventful notes holiday light displays occurring worldwide. We made an API call to round up all the data and then converted the results into a familiar format: the spreadsheet. This step-by-step guide walks you through exactly how to convert API results and then make a map.

Our map shows that the states with the most holiday cheer are California, Texas, and New York, which isn’t too surprising as these three states have some of the highest populations in the U.S. At the time we checked Eventful, Californians had already planned 65 holiday light-themed events, Texas had 44 spectacularly lit options, and the Empire State had 38 holiday light display events. Unfortunately for residents of North Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming, at the time we checked, there weren’t any holiday light events posted. These three states are pretty low population-wise, but even smaller populated states deserve to celebrate. That’s why we also added 2017’s most outrageously lit neighborhoods, so on our map, each of those states have one event going on.

Other Countries That Are Lighting It Up

Many countries other than the U.S. are home to upcoming holiday light displays. While not on this map, countries like the United Kingdom are playing host to 202 light-related activities throughout December. Canada is also bringing their holiday spirit with 65 events, and Australia and New Zealand and holding 36 and 35 light-viewing parties, respectively. Ireland will also be well-lit this season with 23 events occurring, and Malaysia and the Philippines will each have five holiday light events. Germany is also planning on hosting two events, while Finland, France, Hungary, Isle of Man, Singapore, and Spain all have one event taking place this December.

While taking note of which U.S. states and other countries are bringing out the big bulbs is cool, our map contains more than Eventful’s holiday light display results around the world. We also mapped the United States’ most outrageously lit neighborhoods of 2017 and the cost of electricity to keep these neighborhoods in the holiday spirit.

2017’s Best & Brightest Lights

Curious about the absolute best holiday light displays from 2017? Use our map grouping feature to sort the map by “Event.” Then select “2017 Best Neighborhood By State” to see the neighborhoods 24/7 Wall St. identified as the most outrageously lit. Now, we can’t be sure that these winning neighborhoods will continue to deck their halls and homes in the years to come. However, if you happen to live in the vicinity of one of these neighborhoods, you could always stop on by to see if they are continuing with the enjoyable spectacle that is their holiday lights. Keep on reading to discover how to check if one of 2017’s best and brightest neighborhoods is located near you.

How Yule Find The Closest Lights

It’s simple to find out how far — or close! — one of the winning neighborhoods or other 621 holiday light events is to your location. First, filter the map by the type of “Event” you want to check out. If you’re not picky, you can just skip this step. Then type your address into the search bar of the map, and we’ll show you which event is closest to you!

You can even measure the distance in miles or kilometers between where you reside and the closest holiday light display to you. Click on the measuring tape in the top left corner of the map — part of Advanced Mode available with BatchGeo Pro, — and select the option that looks like a mini ruler. Then, drag a line from your location to the nearest event marker to see just how close it is! To toggle back and forth between miles and kilometers, click on the line at the bottom right-hand side of the map.

Oh Electricity, Oh Electricity…

24/7 Wall St. also included each state’s average monthly residential electric bill in their outrageous light displays research. The following ten states or districts have the highest average monthly electricity bills:

1. South Carolina — $146.09
2. Alabama — $145.55
3. Connecticut — $142.19
4. Maryland — $141.53
5. Hawaii — $138.73
6. Washington D.C. — $131.90
7. Georgia — $130.87
8. Tennessee — $128.89
9. Virginia — $127.14
10. Texas — $127.10

The average cost of lighting up a home for the holidays each month is $23.33 for incandescent lights and $2.67 for LED lights. So for those holiday light fans in these top electricity-consuming states, using LED lights may help to keep electricity costs down during this time of year.

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Now is the time to grab some hot cocoa and wander around your city armed with a map of holiday light displays. You can even make your own map like this one using Eventful and BatchGeo. New Year’s Eve parties, anyone?

Record-breakingly high mountain summits, which are the highest points of a mountain, are abundant in the United States — if you know where to look. In fact, the U.S. is home to over 200 mind-bogglingly high summits, including the highest in all of North America: Denali, located in Alaska. The locations — or should we say location — of the top ten highest summits may surprise you, as will the states with nearly identical massive summits that seem to be in really steep competition with each other.

View Highest U.S. Summits in a full screen map

To find out if the rest of the super-high mountain summits are condensed in a select few states or scattered across the country for all to see, check out the map above or read on.

To Summit Up Nicely: Ten Highest Summits

As we list off the ten very highest major summits in the U.S., you may start to see a pattern.

Rank	Mountain Peak	Mountain Range	State	Elevation (feet)
1	Denali	Alaska Range	Alaska	20,310
2	Mount Saint Elias	Saint Elias Mountains	Alaska	18,009
3	Mount Foraker	Alaska Range	Alaska	17,400
4	Mount Bona	Saint Elias Mountains	Alaska	16,550
5	Mount Blackburn	Wrangell Mountains	Alaska	16,390
6	Mount Sanford	Wrangell Mountains	Alaska	16,237
7	Mount Fairweather	Saint Elias Mountains	Alaska	15,325
8	Mount Hubbard	Saint Elias Mountains	Alaska	14,951
9	Mount Bear	Saint Elias Mountains	Alaska	14,831
10	Mount Hunter	Alaska Range	Alaska	14,573

That’s right, Alaska is home to every single one of the top ten highest summits in the U.S. Though the top ten all call The Last Frontier home, they are scattered throughout three different mountain ranges. The Alaska Range is home to 15 major summits in total. Three summits from the Alaska Range made the top ten list, including the very highest major summit not only in the U.S. but in all of North America: Denali.

While the Alaska Range deserves bragging rights for its monster of a mountain Denali, the Saint Elias Mountain Range is home to 24 insanely high summits. The second of the three mountain ranges to take up real estate in the top ten list, the Saint Elias Mountain Range has the most major summits of any mountain range across the U.S.

Topping off the top ten is the Wrangell Mountain Range, where two of the ten highest summits in the U.S. reside. The Wrangell Range also has five other summits which made it onto the map, though they weren’t tall enough to make it to the top ten list. In total, Alaska is home to 49 out of the 200 highest major summits in the U.S.

State by State Summits

Despite the top ten highest summits list being utterly dominated by Alaska, and Alaska having almost 25% of the country’s major summits, Alaska isn’t home to the most major summits. That would be Colorado. Colorado is home to 88 summits, which is nearly half — 44% — of all of the highest summits in the U.S. The highest summit in Colorado is Mount Elbert, which has an elevation of 14,400 feet and ranks #14. Although, if we stuck Mount Elbert side by side with Denali, which rises to 20,310 feet, Elbert would seem pretty puny, comparatively. Colorado’s highest summits range from Mount Elbert to the aptly named Little Cone, at 11,988 feet.

The home of the second-most major summits, of course, is Alaska, with 49 huge summits, or almost 25% of the map. Next up is California with its 22 high summits, the highest being Mount Whitney of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. Mount Whitney stands 14,505 feet tall and is the first non-Alaskan summit to appear on the list at #11. Wyoming closes out the double-digit states with 14 summits.

As for the single-digit summit states, you can visit eight major summits in New Mexico, while you’ll find five in Utah. Nevada is home to the smallest summit on the map, #200 or Charleston Peak (11,916 feet), and has three additional summits, whereas, in Montana, you can see three major summits. If you’re lucky enough to be near the Washington area, be sure to check out its two high summits as they tend to make a big splash. Washington’s Mount Rainier, which is 14,417 feet, is in the top 20 highest major summits in the U.S. Plus, the Evergreen State’s second summit, Mount Adams, is actually a volcano! It can be sighted when hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Though Mount Adams hasn’t erupted in more than 1,000 years, it’s not considered extinct yet, so watch out if your bucket list consists of hiking all of the highest major summits in the United States.

Twin Towers: Summits with the Same Height

If you group the map by rank, you can see that several of the summits share the same rank. These twin towers have the exact same elevation, so they’re tied. Check out the eight highest summits in the U.S. with the same height:

• Wheeler Peak & Cloud Peak — #98
• Lone Cone & Castle Mountain — #132
• Hess Mountain & Mount Brooks — #193
• Lituya Mountain & Haydon Peak — #198

Wheeler Peak, located in the Taos Mountains of New Mexico, and Cloud Peak in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming are tied for the 98th highest summit in the United States. These two summits are both 13,167 feet tall. As for the second pair of peaks, Lone Cone is not so alone. Colorado’s smallest summit, located in the San Miguel Mountains, has the same elevation as Castle Mountain in Montana’s Absaroka Mountain Range. Both Lone Cone and Castle Mountain have elevations of 12,618 feet, putting both of them at #132.

The summit creators certainly struggled to make up their minds when creating Alaska’s Hess Mountain and Mount Brooks. These two Alaskan summits have an elevation of exactly 11,940 feet, are both located in the Alaska Mountain Range, and are both in 193rd place. Finally, Lituya Mountain and Haydon Peak — also both in Alaska and both in the Saint Elias Mountain Range — share the same 11,924 feet elevation, tying them for #198.

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The sky is the limit for the highest major U.S. summits and for all of the maps you can make with BatchGeo. Make your own map of other U.S. landmarks you think are cool, or check out some “map-spiration” from maps like the landmarks and milestones along the Appalachian Trail, locations along Route 66 you can still find, or the world’s largest map of the world’s largest roadside attractions.

Proposal-driven fields have more data than they realize. If you send out quotes or estimates on behalf of your business — whether it be for services or wholesale orders — don’t miss out on the insights a map provides. Since your success counts on improving the percentage of proposals that are accepted, keep track of where in the world or region your proposals go, where they are most accepted, and how potential clients heard about your business. Then, make a proposal tracking map. It’s easy with our spreadsheet mapping software, and we’ll walk you step by step through how it’s done.

View Proposal Tracking Map in a full screen map

Take a look at our example proposal tracking map above, where you can sort by “Proposal Status” or “How They Heard About Us.” Imagine what you can gain from making a similar map for your business, especially if you send out lots of proposals.

Track Proposals Like A Pro With A Spreadsheet

Step one of creating a proposal tracking map is to track your proposals — or your sales if you’d rather make a sales map. A spreadsheet is the perfect place to do so. Be it a Google Sheet or Excel, most any spreadsheet can easily be imported into BatchGeo once it has some data.

Start off by adding headings to your spreadsheet. Some potential column headings are:

• Client
• Location
• Proposal Status
• How They Heard About Us

A “Client” heading is necessary to identify the client you’re referencing when it comes to all the other good stuff. Plus, since we’re making a map, “Location” is essential. Fill this in with the location of your clients’ main HQs.

Some additional helpful headings are “Proposal Status” — whether or not your proposal for this particular client has been accepted, declined, or is still pending review. You can also add a “How They Heard About Us” column if you have that information. If you don’t, no worries! You can always start asking that of your clients and add it in later. All of these headings are going to get you the most out of the data you likely already have.

To make our example map, we offered cleaning services to people and places in California and border states. One of our potential clients, Eddard Stark, viewed our cleaning service proposal a while ago, and we’re waiting to hear back. While we wait, let’s add Stark’s data into our spreadsheet. Under the “Client” heading, we’ll add in Stark’s full name, and add that he’s located in the North…of California. We’ll mark the “Proposal Status” as Pending, seeing as we haven’t heard back from him. We do know he found out about us via an email campaign, so we’ll add that into our spreadsheet as well.

Now, we’ll add the rest of the potential clients we’ve sent proposals to in the recent past:

Copy & Paste Into BatchGeo

Once we’ve added in enough data, we can simply copy and paste the spreadsheet into BatchGeo. To do this, highlight all the data in the spreadsheet — don’t forget the ever so important headers! Copy the data by pressing Ctrl+C or Cmd+C on your computer’s keyboard, and then head over to our spreadsheet mapper to paste (Ctrl+V or Cmd+V) in the data from the spreadsheet. It really is that simple!

If you’re more of a visual person, this video walks you through the process of copying and pasting your data into BatchGeo:

Alternatively, follow these step-by-step instructions to get started:

1. Open your spreadsheet
2. Select (Ctrl+A or Cmd+A) and copy (Ctrl+C or Cmd+C) all your data
3. Open your web browser and go to batchgeo.com
4. Click on the location data box with the example data in it, then paste (Ctrl+V or Cmd+V) your own data
5. Check to make sure you have the proper location data columns available by clicking “Validate and Set Options”
6. Select the proper location column from each drop down
7. Click “Make Map” and watch as the geocoder performs its process

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Once you’ve completed the simple steps above, your proposal tracking map will look something like this:

View Proposal Tracking Map in a full screen map

You’ve Got Insights!

Armed with our new proposal tracking map, we can start to see geographical patterns we may not have otherwise noticed. For example, when we group by “Proposal Status,” we see that the majority of our proposals are accepted in Northern California. Now that we know we are more likely to get a gig in NorCal, we’ll start sending the majority our proposals there. Central and Southern California rarely accept our proposals, so with this knowledge, we could do one of two things. We could devise a marketing plan to gain more familiarity in these regions or bypass sending proposals there altogether and instead focus on the areas we’re more likely to add a client.

That’s not even all of the insights we gain from a proposal tracking map. If we group by “How They Heard About Us,” we can see that word of mouth gains us lots of clients in the North. No one has accepted a proposal based on our email campaigns or social media, so we may need to look into revamping those.

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Now that your proposal tracking map is set up, don’t stop there! You’re already on a roll to improving the insights into data you already have, and there are many more maps to make that can help out your business. Easily create them all with BatchGeo. A map such as a map of customers or leads helps to illuminate trends, hot spots, and cold zones so that you can take action. Make another map today!