Has the Christmas spirit gone?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) October 23, 2009 -- As Christmas approaches and many people start heading for the shops, a group of researchers in Finland wonders whether the spirit of Christmas is still intact.

In “Understanding what Christmas gifts mean to children”, published in research publication Young Consumers, Jenniina Halkoaho and Pirjo Laaksonen, both of the University of Vaasa Finland, examine the features and styles of over 300 children’s letters to Santa in an attempt to understand their perception of Christmas.

The authors ponder on the notions of “wants”, “desires”, “needs” and “dreams” expressed by the children, in order to gauge their spiritual and material concerns.

The results show that the children are extremely brand oriented, with each letter containing over 5 gift requests on average. Halkoaho and Laaksonen also comment on the differences between gender highlighting that the girls’ letters are “expressive, polite and contain indirect requests, whereas letters that are written by boys are more often shorter, more task-oriented, and contain direct requests”.

Fortunately, evidence suggests that there may still be some Christmas spirit left, with many letters containing considerate thoughts such as “I will leave you a mince pie, milk and a carrot for your reindeer”. Additionally a small amount of requests were received that displayed incredible faith in Santa to accomplish impossible and unselfish acts i.e. “Would you get my dad a happy heart?”, only 13 letters fitted into this category.

“Understanding what Christmas gifts mean to children” by Jennina Halkpaho and Pirjo Laaksonen appears in Volume 10, Issue 8 of Young Consumers, which is published by Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Young Consumers is a quarterly research journal providing the latest ideas on consumption practices in children and young adults.

For more information about Young Consumers, contact Dr Martyn Lawrence, Publisher, at mlawrence@emeraldinsight.com