# What is the best holiday of the year?

> One night of costumes is up against a week of presents and a table of leftovers. A day off work counts for something too.

*By YPB Team · Published September 20, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-holiday-of-the-year*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Halloween** — score 1000/1000
   One night of costumes, carved pumpkins and free candy, with no gifts to buy and no dinner to cook.
2. **Christmas** — score 903/1000
   Trees, lights and a week of enforced family time, the most commercially dominant holiday on earth.
3. **Labor Day** — score 597/1000
   Summer's last long weekend, spent at a cookout and pretending autumn is not coming.
4. **April Fools' Day** — score 542/1000
   A licence for one day of pranks, and the one holiday that punishes the gullible.
5. **Valentine's Day** — score 478/1000
   Roses, chocolate and restaurant reservations, adored and resented in roughly equal measure.
6. **Super Bowl Sunday** — score 478/1000
   Not a real holiday, yet half a country stops for the game, the ads and a table of dips.
7. **Memorial Day** — score 478/1000
   The unofficial start of summer, marked with flags, barbecues and the first open pool.
8. **Mother's Day** — score 404/1000
   Brunch, flowers and the busiest restaurant day of the American year.
9. **Fourth of July** — score 404/1000
   Grills, parades and fireworks over water, the loudest day on the American calendar.
10. **Father's Day** — score 404/1000
   Grilling, golf and a necktie nobody will wear, observed with far less pressure than its counterpart.
11. **Thanksgiving** — score 319/1000
   A whole day built around one enormous meal and an argument about football.
12. **Day of the Dead** — score 319/1000
   Marigolds, sugar skulls and altars built so the dead can visit for a night.
13. **St. Patrick's Day** — score 319/1000
   Green everything, parades and a river dyed emerald in the middle of Chicago.
14. **Cinco de Mayo** — score 319/1000
   Mariachi, street food and festivals marking an unlikely Mexican victory at Puebla.
15. **Mardi Gras** — score 319/1000
   Beads, brass bands and floats rolling through New Orleans before the fasting starts.
16. **Lunar New Year** — score 217/1000
   Red lanterns, dragon dances and the largest annual human migration on the planet.
17. **Easter** — score 217/1000
   Spring pastels, chocolate eggs and a hunt in the backyard for whatever the adults hid.
18. **New Year's Eve** — score 0/1000
   Fireworks, countdowns and resolutions that rarely outlive January.

Tags: usa, family, holidays, traditions