Tis’ The Season For Giving
5 in 5 - Brave & Heart HeartBeat #136 ❤️
This week we’re getting into the Christmas spirit and doing a gift special. Don’t worry, this isn’t a round-up article of all the nonsense you can buy on Amazon, like every other Buzzfeed article, but a more nuanced look at gift giving and Christmas this year.
Including the social-media-isation of Christmas magic the concept of “giftflation” and why Christmas ads feed into it so much, and the fall of sustainable gifts.
We’ve also sneaked some coal into your stocking with a story on Elon Musk, sorry!
Let’s get into it.
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#1 - Instagram Christmas – Too Much Pressure on Parents?
Parents have always wanted to make Christmas special for kids, but this year especially the curated social media feeds of mummy bloggers are taking it to the extreme, and with them piling the pressure on everyone else.
It begs the question, are some people feeling forced to make every day a Christmas wonderland to keep up with appearances online?
With Elf on the Shelf getting up to more outrageous antics with each post, including bringing a “North Pole Breakfast” – a buddy the Elf inspired breakfast of basically sweets and syrup – photo opportunities picking out Christmas trees, Christmas light forest walks, delivering your Christmas list to Santa photoshoots and parents showing off how to make more and more elaborate advent calendars full of treats (not even just chocolate, often real gifts) for each day of December on TikTok and Instagram reels – Christmas with kids seems to have become a month long content creation challenge.
The peak of this magical memory creating mania has also come at a pretty bad time for the economy, pairing with the cost-of-living crisis to make opening up Facebook to see another family having a fun filled not at all free day out a living nightmare for some parents.
Are these social media driven festive trends ruining Christmas? For some the answer is a definite yes. Making Christmas a “magic” enough time was pressure enough already before you had to watch everyone else doing it perfectly online.
Maybe start by putting down your phone, eating a mince pie, and trying to forget that Elf on the Shelf exists. We’re certainly trying.
#2 - “Giftflation” and Christmas Ads
We’re all experiencing inflation at the minute, some for the very first time, notably Millennials and Gen Z, but what is “Giftflation”?
The pressure of choosing the perfect gift to give at Christmas, no matter the cost, plus the expectations of our gift-giving abilities increasing every year, i.e. presents need to be bigger and better and we need to outdo ourselves again and again or we’ve failed = Giftlation.
The author of this Guardian article describes being in almost £30,000 of credit card debt due to compulsive gift giving and the desire to prove their love to friends and relatives at Christmas.
While we might look at this example with a smug “it could never happen to us” – Christmas marketing messages are powerful, especially with the trend of tear-jerking emotional Christmas ads of the past few years.
Even the most careful budgeter can risk being lured into extra spending as their carefully chosen gifts start to pale in comparison with the emails full of stuff you didn’t buy, and ads that frame gift giving as THE only way to express love.
Gifting falls into the category of “emotional spending” and has ad money and creativity literally thrown at it all year, culminating in tear jerker ads and minute by minute email campaigns.
Smarter people than you have been tricked into overspending, so basically, watch out.
#3 - Cheap Or Sustainable Gifts? Inflation At Christmas Makes Decision For Us
While the cost-of-living crisis has hit profits for many small businesses, the Christmas season can be a good time to boost sales. However, for small business who focus on sustainability, often meaning much higher prices, the knock-on effect has been dramatic.
While the independent sustainable products retail sector enjoyed rapid growth during the Covid lockdowns, with a boom in online shopping and many of us needing a little treat, the boom has gone in the opposite direction this Christmas.
Many shoppers are prioritising cheaper gifts rather than sustainable ones, and with the increased cost of business caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and sometimes Brexit, and the result is hundreds of independent businesses closing and many others struggling.
Many businesses report losing customers to cheaper options, with people simply having less disposable income to spend after energy bills, and despite lasting longer sustainable products are still seen as a luxury item, and the expected Christmas rush never coming in.
One business owner who just closed their doors leaves us with their last words - “Money is tight at the moment, but we have to ask ourselves what we value and where we want to spend our money. Investing in local, sustainable businesses is investing in a future we surely all want.”
#4 - Elon Musk’s Gift to the People – Or To Himself?
Elon Musk, the radical free speech lover that he is, recently posted a poll asking the people of Twitter if he should step down as CEO. The answer was yes, albeit not a resounding yes at less than 60%. Now what?
So… is he going to abide by the voice of the people or not? Sources say yes, all the while humble bragging that his shoes will be so hard to fill.
Well, Musk surely does believe he himself is God’s gift to mankind, so no shock there.
Musk has responded that when he finds someone crazy enough to take over the job from him, then by all means, while also stating that there is no successor as nobody has the ability to make Twitter work.
We also can’t help but wonder, why throw this particular message in a bottle out to sea in the first place? Musk has a knack for asking the people to weigh in on something and then using their answer as an excuse for his action, does he want rid of Twitter already?
Seeing as he was forced to buy it after a bluff gone wrong and the platform has been spiralling out of control ever since, it’s not unlikely.
#5 - Tech Christmas Gifts Privacy Guide
Christmas is here, and what better gift for your loved ones than big tech spying on them in their home?
How about an Amazon Halo Rise, through the power of tracking your breathing it sees you when you’re sleeping AND knows when you’re awake – so festive!
Or a Google nest hub, a gift for them and for Google. They can never have too much data to fuel their personalised ads so give them a helping hand by wrapping one up for the most mysterious person on your list this year.
How about an Air Tag? This one doubles up as it not only allows Apple to stalk them, but it could also be used by them to stalk other people – get it for the person on your naughty list.
Obviously, we’re just kidding, but check out this list from the Guardian to get the run down on the privacy features of all your fave tech gifts this year.
They See You When You’re Sleeping, They Know What Kind of Shoes You Want To Buy
Brave & Heart over and out.
Bonus
Funniest Parent Tweets This Christmas
Piggybacking off the exasperated Elf on the Shelf hating parents please enjoy the funniest tweets of parents this Christmas.
Then, as we said, throw the Elf in the bin and say Santa came to collect him.
To find out more on how you can retain talent or fill available roles without using twitter polls,, or how we can help you with digital solutions to your business and marketing challenges, check out our case studies.