Smartphones are the most preferred Christmas gift but how has technology revolutionised Christmas?

Advancements in technology have helped change and increase the use of the internet on a mass scale, which has evidently contributed to the ever-changing Christmas festivities. Due to the pandemic, in some countries, this year’s Christmas celebrations will be slightly different with even more dependence on technology to connect friends and families.

(Source- BCC)

Unbelievably in the 19th century, Christmas was not hugely celebrated as a holiday, unlike today. It became an annual celebration towards the end of the century, and since then it has evolved year on year, adapting with new rituals and transformed from simple gift-giving to bigger and more expensive gestures. 

Technology advancements have been one of the biggest deciding factors of how the holiday seasons have been reshaped to fit into the modern world. So how has technology changed and revolutionised Christmas for us today?

Gifting 

Technology has changed gifting in obvious ways. A survey conducted by SellCell found that a smartphone was the most popular Christmas gift for both teenagers and parents with a massive 40.7% of participants claiming they would buy them as presents. 

(Source- SellCell)

The survey also showed that traditional Christmas gift that was once popular such as sweaters, sports equipment, and toys have unfortunately lost their charm in the face of technology. However, cash has seemed to hold onto a higher enough position of popularity over laptops and tablets but is still outnumbered by gaming consoles. 

Decorations

Gone are the days of string light as we catapulted into the 21st century they have been replaced with smart LED light strips which intelligently connect to our smart home devices such as Alexa and even smartphones. 

From our smartphones or even via voice control, we can change the modes of lights and brightness to create a unique ambience for every moment. As technology improves, new merges have been made, and now you can even find lights which play festive music and sync to the sound of your smart TV. Colours can also be chosen which make them hot property for those who like to match Christmas decorations to their home interiors. 

Most neighbourhoods have rival festive light competitions, trying to outdo each other year on year. However, the ease of putting up modern festive lights has made this a simple and effortless task. Projectors can now be used to display Christmas wonderland displays directly onto the home.

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(Source- Accident Claims Advice)

This is just as well as statistics have shown an increase in the number of A&E patients leading up to Christmas with typical injuries from decorations. In the image above, statistics show the most common holiday decorating injuries: trips and falls, being the most popular. Tree decorating may become a thing of the past as future technology could give us tree decorating robots, taking away the annual stress of tree decorating away. 

Shopping

Frantic shopping for last-minute gift buying can be one of the most stressful things to deal with over the Christmas period. Typically there are two different types of shoppers. Those who prefer to shop in stores and who enjoy the physicality of seeing and touching the product before buying. And those who are less fussed about seeing the products are happy to buy items online without the stresses of having to leave their homes which has been made possible thanks to technology.

Christmas shopping can be done months in advance, thanks to technology, allowing us to carry out online shopping. This type of shopping can fit around everyone’s lifestyle, allowing for 24hr shopping and even next day delivery which make it as good as going to get yourself. 

(Source- Shopblocks)

A survey carried out by Shopblocks highlighted in the image above shows that women are more likely to go out shopping while men are more likely to buy from Amazon. The survey also outlines the most popular places people go to find gifts with eBay and Facebook coming in quite high for males. 

The discrepancy between the two genders shows us just how impactful and important technology has become, although men seem to buy online more, women are not too far behind. 

This graph also indicates a big insight for retail shops who may be considering moving to an online platform, proving many still do come into stores to shop despite even the fear of the pandemic, if they can shop they will. 

Although Christmas may have been reshaped by introducing technology, its implementation into the holiday can only be seen as a good one. Despite having to spend more money of gifts, the process of getting ready for the holidays to have been made much easier and simpler thanks to technology, kitchen aids such as smartphones and tablets to help with recipes and cooking can also help take the stress out of Christmas dinner preparation allowing us to enjoy the holidays better.