Christmas Yet To Come

In this blog post I am going to take a look ahead to five elements of the festive season that I can see being transformed either by technology or society in the next 20 years or so. These ideas are not based on anything other than extrapolations or hunches, but I think I can make a reasonable case for all five. So, please join me as I look ahead to Christmas 2043.

1. Family Time

Christmas 2023 style is much the same as it has been for many years. People either take their cars or public transport, and make their way to someone else’s house or to a venue like a hotel or a restaurant for their celebrations. It is stressful, time consuming, environmentally unfriendly and often gets the Christmas period off to the worst possible start. Christmas 2043 will see many families using the full power of technology and joining each other using VR headsets. They are already very advanced, but for the moment require a virtual landscape. I think that in 20 years time you will be able to sit in a real life living room or around the Christmas dining table with other family members with the simple use of cameras in the host venue. Let’s face it, cameras are becoming increasingly powerful and the days of grainy images are pretty much gone, as doorbell cameras demonstrate. This could be a way to make the family gathering a more relaxing occasion for all as we are invited to each other’s homes without leaving our own.

2. Present Buying

Now, I absolutely love present buying. All year I listen to little comments people make, or take notice of what they are listening to, watching or reading, store them away and then start buying presents from July or August onwards, safe in the knowledge that they will love their gifts. I am also very straightforward to buy for with three themed gift lists on Amazon! However, I am aware that I am something of an outlier in this matter, so what will be done for those who hate present buying. Well in Christmas 2043 one of the tried and trusted pieces of Christmas tech will be the AI Shopping Assistant. The basis for this technology already exists because of our huge digital footprints. However, I see different levels of AI present choosing, with the lower level being based on any wish lists on any site, the medium level being based on the searches made by the intended recipient, and the highest level looking for unique presents based on the person’s entire digital footprint that moves past any lists or any searches that the person may have made. Yes, I am developing technology in my own image, but I firmly believe I am the best model for this!

3. Christmas Decorations

A common theme of Christmases past and present has been the many decisions to be made when putting your decorations up. We’ve all heard variations on the following. ‘Does this look good here?’ ‘Where can this go?’ ‘We can’t possibly fit everything on to the tree!’ This year, I reluctantly accepted that the children’s Christmas decorations, made at primary school or beyond, needed to be left in the attic due to lack of room. It got me thinking about how we avoid this situation in the future. How will technology help here? Well, I think it will be a two step process. Stage 1 uses existing technology. Even now, it’s a fairly straightforward process to take a picture of each room in the house and get AI to suggest a design. We can look at those designs using our VR headsets and then utilise the decorations we have to their best effect. Stage 2 is where the process gets more personal. The user uploads pictures of all of their decorations and the AI then fits each one into the room to their best effect. You can prioritise certain decorations above others at this stage to ensure that homemade decorations get their place in setting the tone for the festivities.

4. Christmas Cards

The decline in the number of people sending Christmas cards seems to be the end for a tradition that will be 200 years old in 2043. The days of hanging up Christmas cards, or putting them around the fireplace and on every available surface, are over for many in my generation and my children’s generation. Many of my online friends announce that they are not sending Christmas cards anymore. You now send cards in the hope rather than the expectation that they will reach the intended recipients before the end of Twelfth Night, due to the problems that the Post Office now has in terms of getting anything to us in time. Why would anyone send them in the future? Well, I have a theory that the 200th anniversary of Christmas cards will see a resurgence in the practice as the younger generation search for something more tangible. It happened with music, after all, as vinyl became a format of interest, not just for oldies like me, but for my children and their friends. They love the tactile nature of the vinyl records and they can see the way that it changes the way you listen to music. Cards will become, initially I think, a way of showing a real connection with your closest friends, and they will take their place as Christmas decorations as they did for my parents and for us. Christmas is about tradition and nostalgia and the resurgence of cards will provide both for a new generation of Christmas lovers.

5. Christmas Entertainment

For my entire childhood, and well into my twenties and to some extent beyond, Christmas television was a shared experience with massive audiences as all the family sat in front of the TV. Surely that is a thing of the past? Well, maybe not. There are Christmas Movie channels, repeats of Christmas TV in years gone by and communal experiences where people gather together to watch Christmas classics on the big screen, sometimes with full orchestras playing the music. It is already common for people of all ages to have favourite films that must be watched every year, so those films are the ones that, around the country, sell out venues months ahead of time. Looking ahead, I think that there will be more and more call for these shared experiences as our increasingly separate lives leave us ever more in need of real world connections. What form these connections will take is less certain, but I see the large screen events becoming a part of most people’s Christmas celebrations, and this will, I think, lead on to a resurgence in shared Christmas TV programmes on broadcast channels that can tap into this need.

Final Thoughts

So there you have it. Some aspects of Christmas Yet to Come may well look more familiar than we expect, but technology will change other aspects beyond all recognition. I hope you have found my predictions interesting, and perhaps persuasive. I would love to hear from you in the comments if you agree or disagree with any of them.