With the end-of-year vlogs on YouTube, the Christmas spirit smells of the tree

• From December 1, YouTube is adorned with its most beautiful garlands: on the platform, “vlogmas” are multiplying

• These daily videos aimed at preparing for Christmas set the tone for the end-of-year celebrations, all in home cooking and beautiful gifts at the foot of the tree

• A very capitalist (and lucrative) take on what the "Christmas spirit" is supposed to be

Every year, from December 1st, it's the same little music that settles.

While Mariah Carey's

resonates in shopping malls around the world, on YouTube, content creators are busy.

The fir trees and other illuminations are out, as the gifts accumulate and the stoves start for the famous December 24th.

On YouTube, a somewhat particular format has been multiplying on the platform for several years: that of “vlogmas”, a contradiction of the word “vlog” (a filmed blog, and therefore video) and “Christmas” to designate the Christmas period.

A concept born in the United States, it was imported to France by videographers such as Marie Lopez alias Enjoy Phoenix, which celebrated its ninth season of Vlogmas this year.

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The vlogmas are videos of about twenty minutes, distilled like an advent calendar, at a fixed time, throughout the month of December.

A favored format for YouTube channels specializing in beauty, fashion, cooking or

themes , these daily videos are an unmissable event in December.

Because, like on all other platforms, the holiday season brings its share of clicks, from Internet users spending their holidays in front of YouTube to those browsing the Web in search of gift ideas or cooking recipes.

The Christmas vlogs follow one another and resemble each other: a beautiful Christmas tree full of lights, a united family gathered around well-wrapped gifts, an unboxing of Advent calendars provided by brands, all in an atmosphere that smells of cinnamon and hot chestnuts.

What curly overdose.

A certain vision of the "Christmas spirit", not without a mental charge

In the western world, Christmas has its own colors and codes: red, white and green;

tables decorated and filled with good dishes;

dozens of gifts under an illuminated Christmas tree… An aesthetic and an imaginary chewed up and spat out by Hollywood advertisements for decades, with great blows of marketing campaigns.

And if the

of our favorite Youtubeurs and Youtubeuses focus on their intimacy, we can have the impression of not living in the same space-time.

A meticulous morning routine, neat interior, gifts already ready weeks in advance, a gourmet meal on the Christmas table... If authenticity sells, on YouTube, these videos appeal to our collective imagination of what constitutes the famous "Christmas spirit". », all in stereotype.

Stereotypes also in the roles of each: most of the videographers who lend themselves to this exercise of vlogmas are YouTubers, often mothers.

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Some have made YouTube their main activity, and therefore document every moment of their family life, camera in hand, in this long tunnel that is the month of December.

Choose and prepare gifts for the whole family, host the Christmas meal and therefore cook, find an outfit and a good make-up for the holidays, but also manage the end of the year.

To capitalize on this Christmas spirit, some highlight their family life, including their children: a sometimes disturbing staging of smooth happiness.

December often tastes like a balance sheet, where these YouTubers explain that they want to "speak from the heart", "entrust themselves" to their subscribers: a way of retaining an audience that has followed them more sporadically during the year, or of conquering a new audience.

Marketing opportunity and apology for overconsumption

The end-of-year holiday season is extremely lucrative, for content creators, but especially for the brands that call on them.

As some marketers explained in a recent Slate article, YouTubers play a role as trend setters, which is essential during this holiday season when spending is increasing.

From October or November, they receive advent calendars costing several hundred euros, which they can highlight in their vlogs.

The month of December is also an opportunity to multiply contests and promo codes, to spoil its subscribers... And to ensure that they will follow us in 2023.

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Vlogmas thus rhyme with product placements and advocating overconsumption, both in terms of material purchases (and gift wrap), well-being products (because yes, with the holidays approaching, you need to have skin and a perfect body), food or delicatessen products than energy-intensive (and sometimes not very ecological) decorations.

Because if these videos are fundamentally entertaining, and allow us to better know those we have sometimes been following for several years, vlogmas sometimes have a bitter taste.

That of a slightly unreal Christmas, sometimes far removed from our realities… And from our budget.

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