Christmas Gifts in Illinois: Which Person Is Toughest to Get Right?

Fact Checked by Pat McLoone

With Christmas near, IllinoisBet.com took a break from following Illinois sports betting and casinos to look into who Illinois residents were having the hardest time buying gifts for.

To do so, we used the “Topics” feature in Google Trends and found the top related topics and queries to “Christmas gift” for a 90-day period (Sept. 11-Dec. 11) and ranked the top 5 according to volume. Here are the overall results:

Toughest Christmas Gifts to Buy

RankTop Related Queries
1Boyfriend
2 Grandparent
3 Teenager
4Mother
5Father

 

Head Scratcher at the Top

It was interesting to see boyfriend was No. 1 on the list and girlfriend didn’t even make the list. Is that because guys just buy jewelry or spa treatments, or because guys don’t stress too much about buying gifts for their girlfriends?

At No. 2 is grandparent, which is silly because grandparents love whatever grandchildren get them. Besides, all they really want is for you to call once in a while.

Teenager is No. 3. They’re the opposite of grandparents because they won’t be happy whatever you give them. Unless it’s a car. And not some used junker.

No. 4 and 5 are Mom and Dad. These can be tough, because mom wants the gift to be thoughtful and loving. She might desire an electric can opener, but she doesn’t want one from her child as a Christmas gift. And how many pairs of slippers does Dad need?

Since this is a sports betting site, however, I thought I’d add in what fans are struggling to get their favorite teams:

  • Can you gift the Bears losses? Every team wants to win, but the Bears playoff chances are dim, so that sweet W over Detroit is just making their draft pick worse.
  • Give the Bulls better point guard play. They’re 29th in assists and 28th in field goal percentage.
  • It’s not hard to find a gift for the Blackhawks. They need everything. The team is last in the Western Division – 30th in goals for, 27th in goals against.
  • The Chicago Fire also have a lengthy Christmas list after finishing tied for 12th in the MLS East.
  • The 101-loss White Sox had a -200-run differential in 2023 and need pitching and hitting – but are looking to trade starter Dylan Cease to boost a rebuild.
  • The Cubs scored the third most runs in the National League, so they’d love to find an ace pitcher under the tree. But to keep that run total up, they also might need to re-sign Cody Bellinger.

If you are shopping to bet on any of the Chicago teams, make sure you check out the best Illinois sportsbook promos.

Author

Howard Gensler

Howard Gensler is a veteran journalist covering the Illinois casino and sports betting market for IllinoisBet.com. Before his focus on U.S. sports betting, Howard worked at the Philadelphia Daily News, TV Guide and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Howard is also a founding editor of bettorsinsider.com.

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