The holidays are making us happy, joyful and stressed

The Ipsos Consumer Tracker asks Americans questions about culture, the economy and the forces that shape our lives. Here's one thing we learned this week.

Why we asked: This was a question we introduced last holiday season, although we asked it much earlier (mid-September). The holiday season brings out a lot of complex emotions from joy to stress. The stress is also complicated, stemming from economic, emotional and time-management dimensions. And no, I wasn’t projecting at all with the follow-up question of “why are you stressed.”

What we found: Happy emotions have overtaken “stressed,” which drops to fourth, with still 28% of people expressing this emotion. We asked an open-end and… maybe we didn’t have enough negative emotions in the original prompt. Sad, depressed, exhausted, (and combinations of “sad and depressed,” “sad and extremely depressed” and “sad and exhausted”) jumped out. Some went into the specific reasons, like the loss of a loved one. When asked to specify why they were stressed or worried, most (62%) said they worried about paying for gifts and another 41% worried about finding the right gifts for everyone. One in three worried about dealing with crowds at stores and one in four said they worried about the social aspects like attending parties or family gatherings. Democrats (24%) were much more worried about political disagreements with family than Republicans (7%). In the verbatims for this question, we also see a dominant themes of loneliness and grief. 

All of this serves to remind us (both in terms of our jobs and also just as people) that people’s reactions to the holidays are complex, and messaging should take that into account.

More insights from this wave of the Ipsos Consumer Tracker:

Most people don’t know how tariffs work (and some even admit that)

Most think tariffs will increase prices, but aren’t doing anything about it

Our outlook keeps improving

Here’s what we resolve for 2025

37 questions for 2025 and beyond