Happy Holidays to all! No matter what our age, it can be an exciting and stressful time of year.

Exciting because children are consciously aware of Santa and being good ” seeing the holiday decorations through their eyes helps us adults enjoy the holidays even more. Stressful because the demands of shopping, how much money we have to spend on others and some have no one to celebrate with at all. Regardless of your age, the holiday season can be a time of looking back at past holidays and memories.

The Traditional generation members, those who were born 1922-1945, probably have memories of what’s known as a “hard candy Christmas” due to the post-depression experiences. What’s a hard candy Christmas? One that is sparse and to receive one, practical gift was something to be truly thankful to be able to give and/or receive.

The Baby Boomers, those who were born 1946-1964, probably have memories of some minimal Christmases and growing up, experienced the 70’s as great times ” a revolution in a way of buying for others and making sure their children have much.

Generation X’ers, born 1965-1980, are used to receiving many gifts from parents and other family members during times of affluence. Parent’s guilt of having “latch key children” allows the Gen Xers to be provided external and material items and less quality, family time.

Gen Y’ers, those born 1981-2000, experienced opulence in being given material items and technological gadgets. This generation only knows being connected globally 24/7. This generation would prefer to keep their iPhone over going on a vacation with the family if they had to choose. They are used to “all for one and one for all” environments and demand things to be fair and equal. Thus, at this Christmas we must be aware of fairness and equal among siblings!

Isn’t it interesting that holidays and generations come into play without us giving it much thought and yet, we can easily see how generation motivators and experiences impact our holiday gifting. Blessings to all of you, regardless your generation. We, here at Learning Alliances, wish you peace and happiness not just through this holiday season but every day!