Solitude as self-care for Gen Z at Christmas

In his ‘People First’ agenda, IPA President Josh Krichefski outlined a priority for the years ahead: to realise the needs of people in our industry and in turn, attract and nurture the best talent. Supporting employee mental health and wellbeing is a key component of his platform and something we explored in our recent Christmas Consumer 2024 report. As advertisers everywhere prepare for the golden quarter, this report provided the perfect opportunity to examine the festive season’s impact on consumer mindsets, moods and emotions.

Festive feelings

As one would predict, seeing friends and family is one of the main reasons why happiness reigns over the Christmas period. For older people, the benefits of socialising with loved ones are especially pronounced. This is highlighted by the charity AgeUK, which found that 2.3 million older people wished they had someone to spend time with at Christmas in 2023. This desire may be exaggerated due to older generations often having smaller social circles, and so placing additional value on Christmas as a time for increased social gatherings and familial visits.

Beneath the veneer of festive cheer lurks more negative emotions which are disproportionately experienced by younger consumers. Indeed, our survey revealed that one in ten 18-34s find Christmas Day overwhelming, and many more expect to feel burnt out by the time January rolls around. Although merry meetups often make the season enjoyable, they can also lead to anxiety, tipping the balance towards festive fatigue. It’s not that younger people place less value on socialisation, much the opposite, reports state that like older generations they also have an acute fear of loneliness. Rather, their experience of loneliness manifests itself differently to older generations.

Loneliness or solitude?

According to Foresight Factory, Gen Z who feel at risk of loneliness over-index on socialising with friends or relatives. This suggests that their fear of loneliness is more about an internal feeling than an external reality, or perhaps that their relationships are not as deep as they would like them to be. This highlights how, in contrast to older generations, Gen Z are lonely despite being in a sea of people and connections (both online and in-person). There is a sense that being connected at every turn has left them feeling superficially close to many rather than deeply bound to a few. And so, being surrounded by lots of people over the Christmas period may serve to heighten internal feelings of anxiety and loneliness.

In contrast to what you’d expect of a generation struck by a loneliness epidemic, over half of our Gen Z categories recorded enjoying spells of solo relaxation over the festive period. This appears to be especially prominent during the period between Christmas and New Year, coined ‘Twixmas’. As recorded in our Twixmas poll, almost a quarter of 18-34s associate this time with calmness, compared with only 17% of the total population.

So perhaps, solo relaxation can help rather than hinder younger consumers, acting as a form of self-care to quell negative internal feelings rather than inducing loneliness.

Where brands can come in

Brands should see this as an opportunity to challenge the assumption that being alone equates to being lonely over the festive period, and to facilitate consumer downtime by framing solitude as an accepted form of self-care (that their products and services may be able to cater for). For example, charities like Mind and Mental Health UK emphasise the restorative value of taking time to yourself over Christmas. Both advise doing something that settles you, be it reading a book or watching a film. Beyond this, meditation apps such as Headspace encourage inward reflection, mentally transporting you to a safe space of your choice, be that the lavender fields of Provence, or the safe recesses of a warm downtown café. Brands like John Lewis, M&S and NEOM have also played into this space, releasing curated festive wellbeing ranges featuring products like candles, face masks and aromatic bath salts, that elevate moments of calm away from the Christmas chaos.

Although some brands have already dipped a toe into the festive wellness pool, it’s likely the opportunities go much deeper. Only a month later, in January, a quarter of 18-24s plan to purchase health and wellbeing products during the 2025 January sales. As a result, brands continue to make the most of the ‘New Year, New Me’ wellness hype, from Shreddy, with its 70-day at-home workout challenge to Goodreads, with its annual reading resolutions. By normalising the need for respite over the festive period and offering ways for consumers to relax on their own before the New Year, brands can allow consumers to press pause on non-stop socialising and spend some quality time alone this Christmas.

Not only can ad agencies help brands maximise their impact on consumers, but they should also extend this approach to their employees, fostering open conversations around balancing working from home and working in the office. By considering individual circumstances and requests, agencies can help navigate the tension between feelings of loneliness and using solitude as a form of self-care.

The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and were submitted in accordance with the IPA terms and conditions regarding the uploading and contribution of content to the IPA newsletters, IPA website, or other IPA media, and should not be interpreted as representing the opinion of the IPA.