18.12.2025
In this blogpost, Merja Turpeinen, the Communications Specialist of the Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development, discusses the overconsumption aspects of our Christmas habits.
In early December, we shared a statement prepared by Sustainability Panel members Lassi Linnanen and Niko Soininen for the Finnish Parliament’s Future Committee Working Group on Overconsumption. The statement addressed structural overconsumption and possible solutions. Structural overconsumption means that institutional and cultural frameworks in society steer us toward unsustainable consumption.
A growth dependent economy, along with public finances tied to it, requires constant increases and intensification in production and consumption. Christmas is one of the clearest examples of how economic and social mechanisms push people to overconsume. Examining Christmas through the lens of overconsumption reveals how normalized this phenomenon has become and how deeply economic and social structures sustain this mindset.
Although Christmas is surrounded by traditions, togetherness, and warm imagery, the consumption and gift-giving culture built around it shows how deeply the logic of consumption is embedded in society’s structures. The alliance of emotions and marketing makes Christmas an exceptionally powerful engine of consumption.
Giving and receiving gifts is often seen as a way to express love and care. This makes the gift culture emotionally significant and hard to question. The social pressure to buy gifts—especially the “right” gifts—is so strong that holiday consumption feels almost obligatory.
The idea of a perfect, desirable Christmas is reinforced by entertainment. What image comes to your mind when you think of a typical American Christmas movie?
Retail, logistics, and marketing machinery build a significant part of their annual strategies around the holiday season. Christmas is so important to the economy that many companies’ annual results depend on the holiday sales. This economic structure creates a strong incentive to maintain and strengthen consumer culture. From a sustainability perspective, this is problematic because exceeding the planet’s ecological limits stems largely from resource overconsumption, especially in wealthy countries and populations.
Christmas consumption culture extends beyond gifts to food, decorations, travel, and various services. A generous holiday dinner is an important part of the celebration for many, but it also increases food waste and environmental impact. Seasonal decorations and short-lived products, such as electronics that quickly become outdated, are examples of items with short lifespans but large environmental footprints.
Beyond environmental impacts, the holiday consumption culture affects people’s daily lives and wellbeing. Financial pressure to buy gifts and create the “perfect Christmas” can cause stress and anxiety. For many, these expectations clash with their financial reality, leading to debt or feelings of guilt.
Looking at Christmas through the lens of structural overconsumption reveals that overconsumption is not just an individual choice but a culturally and economically produced phenomenon. It emerges from a complex interaction between marketing, social norms, economic structures, and emotional meanings and paradigms.
Structural overconsumption has stolen the heart of Christmas. Christmas should not create pressure to consume but offer space for rest, peace, and presence. It’s a moment to pause and focus on what truly makes the season meaningful.
Happy holidays!