Let’s start this article by making sure we know Gen Z and Millennials like the holidays in the first place. If you’re the parent of a young adult – Gen Z or Millennial – you may have noticed they may not be as enthusiastic about the holiday season as they used to be.
That’s not unusual at all.
During late adolescence and early adulthood, many people move away from their family traditions. They may abandon them altogether as they strive to form an independent identity, separate and distinct from their parents. This may mean leaving traditions behind. It may mean forging ahead and creating new traditions of their own.
But some Gen Z and Millennials like their holidays just like they’ve always been and prefer to conserve the traditions passed down by their families. We’re getting ahead of ourselves though: we promised above we’d make sure we know Gen Z and Millennials like the December holidays in the first place.
Data from YouGov, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Escoffier show the following:
- 63% of Gen Z have a positive view of Thanksgiving
- 59% of Gen Z have a positive view of Christmas
- 76% of millennials have a positive view of Thanksgiving
- 75% of millennials have a positive view of Christmas
- 46% of Gen Z plan to go to a party on New Year’s Eve (positive/negative data not available)
- 69% of millennials have a positive view of New Year’s Eve
Here are the common birth year ranges for the generations:
- Gen Z: born between 1997 and 2012
- Millennials: born between 1981 and 1996
And so we don’t leave anyone out:
- Gen X: born between 1965 and 1980
- Boomers: born between 1946 and 1964
- The Silent Generation: born between 1928 and 1945
Finally, we can’t leave forget Generation Alpha, the newest generation, which includes people born between 2013 and the present. We don’t have data on this topic for them yet. What we do know, in addition to the basics above, is what kinds of things Gen Z and Millennials like to do over the holidays, which we’ll discuss now.
Gen Z, Millennials, and the Holidays: How Do They Like to Celebrate?
One thing we learned while researching this article is that, like other generations, Millennials and Gen Z are diverse, with a wide range of opinions and varying points of view on any topic you care to name. Overall, however, articles about these two generations indicate they prefer experience over possessions and occasionally avoid family holiday events so they don’t have to field questions about jobs or long-term financial plans or when will you bring me grandchildren.
When talking to Gen Z and Millennials, most people from older generations get the sense they want to be free to make their own traditions, which, as we mention above, often default to creating interesting and enriching experiences rather than exchanging and acquiring material items.
With that in mind, many of the answers we report below were somewhat surprising: we’ll elaborate on that after we share the results of a series of surveys published about how people from these two generations view the holidays.
First, we’ll share the results of a survey published here by Talker Research about which holiday activities people Millennials and Gen Z like the most.
Gen Z and Millennials: Top Four Activities for the Holidays
- Watching holiday movies: 59%
- Cooking: 56%
- Baking: 53%
- Cookie swaps: 47%
Next, let’s look at how respondents felt about common holiday traditions.
Gen Z and Millennials: What Are They Doing for the Holidays?
- Follow traditions from childhood: 70%
- Making new traditions: 74%
- Finding new traditions on social media: 59%
- Finding new traditions on TV/in movies: 43%
- Found a new tradition by accident: 41%
- Planning to put up a tree: 88%
- Faux tree: 46%
- Real tree: 26%
- More than one tree: 40%
- Planning to do Elf on the Shelf with their kids: 22%
And now let’s look at their approach to gifts and decorations.
Gen Z and Millennials: POV on Gifts for the Holidays
- Prefer do-it-yourself (DIY) gifts and decorations: 58%
- Plan to give homemade baked goods as gifts: 56%
- Always refer to go DIY with gifts and decorations: 47%
Here’s something that might surprise you:
60% of millennials and 41% of Gen Z said it’s important to have the best decorations in their neighborhood.
But what kind of decorations do they like?
The Talker poll asked that question, too. Here’s what they found.
Gen Z and Millennials: Five Top Decoration Styles for the Holidays
1. Classic
- Reds, greens, blues, silver: 32%
2. Winter Wonderland.
- Whites, silvers, metallic, shiny: 20%
3. Trendy/Alternative.
- Holiday décor with a personal hipster twist: 14%
4. Modern.
- Futuristic, with specific, limited color palette: 14%
5. Old/Rustic.
- Earth tones, natural wood grains, old-school plaids: 9%
What we found most surprising about the results of these surveys is the level of enthusiasm for traditional rituals and routines Gen Z and Millennials espouse. It’s easy to think that the attitude “leave us alone to make our own traditions” means they plan to make new traditions that look nothing like the old ones.
However, the data shows that’s not that case.
Holidays With Your Gen Z or Millennial Kids: Young Adults Can Step In and Step Up
If you have an adult child in your family who’s a Gen Z or Millennial, it may seem like they’re neither excited about nor interested in the holidays. While that may be true for many, it’s not true for all – and the survey results above demonstrate that clearly.
Here’s what we read into these results:
They love the traditions, but they want to do them in their own way, in their own style, and by their own rules.
Look back at those results. Three of the top four favorite activities sound exactly what boomer grandparents or silent generation great-grandparents might list: cooking, baking, and exchanging cookies – and the other activity?
Movies. For the record, additional surveys show that while Gen Xers moved away from traditional Christmas movies, Millennials and Gen Z returned to them. Consider this list, based on articles here, here, and here:
Favorite Holiday Movies by Generation
- Boomers: It’s a Wonderful Life – a traditional Christmas film.
- Gen X: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation tied with Die Hard – not traditional Christmas films.
- Millennials: Home Alone – a traditional Christmas film.
- Gen Z: Home Alone, Elf, and Charlie Brown Christmas all take top spots in different surveys – an they’re all traditional Christmas movies.
Here’s another thing to think about. Many parents of Millennials and Gen Z children are Gen X – and people from Gen X are notoriously fickle about traditions. Some love and embrace them, while others run as far from them as possible. However, it appears that the majority of people in subsequent, younger generations – 70 percent carry on traditional family rituals, according to the surveys above – enjoy old-fashioned activities just as much as Boomers and the Silent Generation.
So what does that mean for parents with adult children who identify as Gen Z or Millennial?
We think it means step back and give them the space to show you how they want to do the holidays. If you give them the chance, i.e. ownership and control over decision-making, they may just surprise you with their depth of commitment to rituals, traditions, and values you may have thought were slowly fading away. The truth may be that they, like almost every generation before them, have their own idea of what the holidays mean – and you’ve probably already passed on far more than you realize.
