In recent years, Christmas has ceased to be merely a period of family celebrations and has also transformed into a large digital stage. Social media, especially Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest, have redefined what "Christmas glamour" means, shaping desires, aesthetics, and expectations. The result of this movement is a "new glamour," more visual and often distant from the emotional simplicity that traditionally marked this time of year.
Before the massive influence of the digital world, Christmas decorating was an intimate ritual, conceived for the home and for those who lived there. Today, it has also become a showcase. Impeccable trees, precisely coordinated tables, homes transformed into cinematic sets, and compositions planned to generate impact make up an imagery that spreads at high speed. Thus, an aesthetic is born that seeks not only to decorate but to inspire, and that directly engages with global trends and highly refined visual standards.
This phenomenon has driven the professionalization of Christmas decorations. Decorators, designers, artists, and specialized companies have come to occupy an increasingly prominent space, catering to everyone from families wishing to recreate a sophisticated atmosphere to brands that see Christmas as an opportunity to reinforce their positioning and branding. The search for aesthetically designed environments cannot be explained solely by vanity, as it is a demand that combines comfort, identity, and visual impact in a context where everything can become content.
With this, glamour also reinvents itself. It ceases to represent ostentation and begins to reflect curation: choices of materials, color combinations, lighting composition, balance between tradition and modernity. What was once an occasional decoration becomes a visual narrative capable of expressing lifestyle, emotions, and cultural references. This shift transforms Christmas into a planned, photographable, and replicable experience.
The change, however, reignites a central debate, since Christmas has always been marked by memory, affection, and presence, not performance. When aesthetics completely overshadow meaning, there is a risk of emptying the significance of the date, replacing emotion with spectacle. On the other hand, when the visual connects to purpose, identity, and family history, it does not lose its essence; it simply gains new forms of expression, including in the digital environment.
From an economic standpoint, the National Confederation of Commerce of Goods, Services and Tourism (CNC) projects that retail sales should reach R$ 72.71 billion during Christmas 2025, a 2.1% increase compared to the previous year. If this figure is confirmed, it will be the best performance since 2014. The “new glamour,” therefore, not only influences behaviors and desires but also drives entire sectors, from decoration to consumption. Even so, despite the strength of retail chains, the meaning of Christmas continues to be constructed individually, within each home.
Ultimately, perhaps the balance lies in taking advantage of the inspiration offered by social media without losing sight of the fact that Christmas is, essentially, human. It's not about likes, but about belonging; it's not about comparison, but about creating memories that remain when the tree is taken down and the feed returns to normal. The "new glamour," when understood in this way, is not a deviation, but merely a contemporary layer in a celebration that remains, at its core, affectionate.
Vivian Bianchi is the creative director and founder of Tree Story, a company specializing in personalized Christmas decoration projects, focusing on exclusive settings for homes, brands, and corporate environments. She holds a degree in Interior Design from EBAC, with specializations in production and set design from IED São Paulo and IED Barcelona.
