Top 10 Most Overrated Holiday Events

The world's most famous countdown requires standing in freezing temperatures for 12+ hours with no bathroom access, no food vendors, and a ball drop that lasts exactly 60 seconds.

What should be a magical moment becomes a shoulder-to-shoulder sardine experience where you spend more time being herded by NYPD barricades than actually looking at the tree.

Every restaurant becomes a conveyor belt of identical prix fixe menus at triple the normal price, with rushed service, cramped tables, and a rose on your plate that cost the restaurant fifty cents.

Arriving at 6 AM to stand behind five rows of people on a freezing Manhattan sidewalk for a view of balloon undersides and lip-syncing pop stars rolling by on trucks — magical on TV, miserable in person.

The peak bloom lasts about four days, is wildly unpredictable, and attracts such massive crowds to the Tidal Basin that you spend more time in gridlock traffic than admiring petals.

Three-hour waits for five-minute haunted mazes, $80+ tickets on top of park admission, and scare actors so overworked by October 31st that the frights feel mechanical rather than menacing.

London's flagship Diwali celebration is a well-intentioned but underwhelming affair with a small stage, food stalls that run out by 5 PM, and a light switch-on that pales beside actual Diwali celebrations in India.

Twenty minutes of fireworks preceded by three hours of finding parking, staking out a spot, and sitting in post-show traffic so apocalyptic that you question every patriotic instinct you have.

The largest Chinese New Year celebration outside Asia features spectacular floats, but the parade route is so choked with spectators that most families end up watching through phone screens held overhead.

The world's most famous countdown requires standing in freezing temperatures for 12+ hours with no bathroom access, no food vendors, and a ball drop that lasts exactly 60 seconds.

What should be a magical moment becomes a shoulder-to-shoulder sardine experience where you spend more time being herded by NYPD barricades than actually looking at the tree.

Every restaurant becomes a conveyor belt of identical prix fixe menus at triple the normal price, with rushed service, cramped tables, and a rose on your plate that cost the restaurant fifty cents.

Arriving at 6 AM to stand behind five rows of people on a freezing Manhattan sidewalk for a view of balloon undersides and lip-syncing pop stars rolling by on trucks — magical on TV, miserable in person.

The peak bloom lasts about four days, is wildly unpredictable, and attracts such massive crowds to the Tidal Basin that you spend more time in gridlock traffic than admiring petals.

Three-hour waits for five-minute haunted mazes, $80+ tickets on top of park admission, and scare actors so overworked by October 31st that the frights feel mechanical rather than menacing.

London's flagship Diwali celebration is a well-intentioned but underwhelming affair with a small stage, food stalls that run out by 5 PM, and a light switch-on that pales beside actual Diwali celebrations in India.

Twenty minutes of fireworks preceded by three hours of finding parking, staking out a spot, and sitting in post-show traffic so apocalyptic that you question every patriotic instinct you have.

The largest Chinese New Year celebration outside Asia features spectacular floats, but the parade route is so choked with spectators that most families end up watching through phone screens held overhead.