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If comparison is the thief of joy, then for many people Christmas is the most miserable time of year.
Christmas is supposed to be for celebrating with your nearest and dearest over delicious food, hearty laughter and jubilant celebration. In December, your worth is measured by the strength of loving connections.
But with that also comes a huge amount of pressure to live up to this cosy, white picket fence-family expectation.
So I wish celebrities would get off social media and stop flaunting theirs.
Let’s take the Kardashians as an example. They always relentlessly post about their perfect lives on social media: with their blemish-free faces, which look almost identically beautiful, doing dances with their energetic kids – and showing off their ridiculous wealth left right and centre. We’re used to that. Classic Kardashians, ey?
But at Christmas, their insistence on posting about their manicured lives online is tasteless and crass. It’s also irresponsible.
Kourtney Kardashian started December by showing off her – I counted six – Christmas trees, with another inexplicably hanging from the ceiling in her unreasonably large hallway.
Her sister Kylie posted equally overkill videos of her obscenely large Christmas trees and life-sized festive figurines overlooking her garden – which looks like it’s had a firefly infestation, there are so many goddamn lights.
Last year Kim – who has so far only showed off a one frosted Christmas tree, which is the size of a small skyscraper – had 15 trees. Yes. And £2,500 worth of gingerbread houses.
Talking about excessive sparkle, Jamie Foxx posted a video of his seemingly never-ending driveway, which is lined with multi-coloured trees leading up to his house. Each tree has its own colourful display, and the scene is the definition of extra.
Michelle Keegan and Mark Wright casually plonked three actual Christmas trees on top of their porch canopy – it’s that spacious. Meanwhile Mariah Carey – who is admittedly the Christmas queen – is constantly posting videos surrounded by rich Christmassy decor having her most special, wonderful time of the year.
It seems harmless festive fun – albeit extra – but they need to give it a rest for the sake of their millions of followers.
When constantly comparing our own situation to the family idyll, which is shoved down our throats every December, it’s no wonder a YouGov survey in 2019 found over one out of five people feel ‘depressed’ (26%) and ‘lonely’ (23%) at Christmas.
Often loneliness at Christmas is associated with older people, who have perhaps lost family and friends with their age. But the poll found that the highest levels of loneliness were experienced in December by 25-34 year olds (31%).
While an 80-year-old might not be impacted by the online wrath of the Kardashians, this younger, lonelier age group are much more likely to be.
It’s also my age group who have borne the brunt of the cost of living and housing crisis, and so are unable to afford an equally spectacular Christmas. This was proven by DJS Research, who found millennials are more likely than any other age group to report being greatly affected by the cost of living crisis (54% said they were).
We also know that Instagram is not reality and we shouldn’t think everyone’s lives are as perfect as they present them to be online. Perhaps Kourtney is miserable. Money doesn’t, after all, buy you happiness. (But let’s face it, it buys you the freedom to be happy.)
Regardless of whether it’s real or not, we do know that seeing perfect lives on social media exacerbates feelings of inadequacy.
At Christmas, when there’s already so much pressure to be leading a perfect cosy life, celebrities should turn down the dial on showing off theirs. It’s always selfish, but it’s more so at a time of year that’s supposed to be about kindness and giving. By showing us their festive fortune, they are taking, taking, and taking away from the people who, by following them, are funding their lifestyle in the first place.
Millions of Kardashian followers are likely scrolling these ridiculous festive scenes on their pages and wondering if they can afford to ‘do’ Christmas full stop.
Of course, not everyone feels this way. Many of their followers might like escaping into the glamor of their excessively fairy-lit world. But at a time when people are increasingly poor and lonely, please celebrities, all I want for Christmas is for you to shut up.
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