Holiday Gifting Trends 2025: Sustainability, Sentiment, and Slower Living
As the 2025 holiday season approaches, one theme is shaping how people celebrate: intentionality. Consumers — especially Millennials and Gen Z — are choosing gifts that feel personal, low-impact, and emotionally grounding.
Even the way we express affection is shifting. A quick message may be enough for acquaintances, but for the people who truly matter, they’re becoming “card-worthy.” Meaningful gestures are back at the centre of holiday connection.
Below, we break down the biggest holiday gifting trends for 2025 and how they reflect the way people want to live, rest, and connect this season.
1. Circular Design: Sustainable Gifting With Creative Flair
Search interest in sustainable holiday gifts continues to climb, and consumers are enthusiastically embracing circular design — gifts and wrapping made from repurposed, low-impact, or recycled materials.
This year, sustainability goes hand-in-hand with creativity. Think repurposed textile offcuts, fabric-wrapped gifts, risograph-printed cards, DIY craft toppers, and reusable packaging. The craft movement is influencing how consumers wrap, decorate, and personalize gifts more than ever.
Why shoppers love it:
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US Gen Z is increasingly gifting handcrafted items, with more than half participating in 2024.
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Consumers want wrapping that is beautiful and waste-conscious — FSC-certified papers, reusable fabric wraps, washi tape, and jute ribbons are trending.
How Sömn fits:
Our linen offcuts have inspired many customers to create small keepsakes, ornaments, or DIY wrap accents, showing how natural materials can live many lives.
2. Meaningful Keepsakes: Gifts That Tell a Story
Holiday shoppers are leaning toward gifts that hold sentimental value and can be personalized — a major shift from mass-produced novelty items.
People want keepsakes that celebrate milestones and “minorstones” alike: new beginnings, graduations, recovery journeys, pet-parent moments, or simply friendships that feel like home.
Hand-drawn fonts, collage kits, memory boxes, guided journals, and photo albums are trending because they give the receiver a way to build meaning over time.
Why it matters:
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Over one-third of US shoppers prioritized “memory-making gifts” in 2025.
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Searches for “empty gift box” — used to create personalized keepsake kits — surged by 54% globally.
Sömn note:
Soft, long-lasting textiles also fall into this category. A thoughtfully chosen linen throw or bedding set becomes part of someone’s home story for years, not just a season.
3. Finding Pause: The Rise of Rest-Forward Gifting
One of the most influential trends this year is the desire to slow down. Consumers are celebrating transitional periods — new jobs, new chapters, healing seasons — by gifting tools that promote calm and reflection.
Wellness-driven items like journals, teas, aromatherapy, soft loungewear, and cozy home textiles rank high on holiday lists.
This trend aligns with the broader cultural shift toward intentional rest — the idea that slowing down is not indulgent, but essential.
Sömn mention:
Our breathable European linen bedding has naturally become part of many customers’ rest rituals, especially during colder months when softness and comfort matter most.
4. Homestead Comforts: Cottage-core for Modern Living
The Cottagecore trend continues to evolve, shifting from “storybook rustic” to authentic homestead comfort. It blends natural materials, slow crafts, warm lighting, and intentionally lived-in spaces.
Gifting under this trend focuses on coziness: blankets, ceramics, candles, handmade ornaments, and other small comforts that make the home feel nurturing.
It’s nostalgia, grounded in simplicity.
5. Cosmic Guidance: The Spiritual Self-Discovery Gift Trend
Consumers seeking grounding and self-understanding are drawn to the rise of New Spirituality gifts — items that help people connect with their inner world.
Astrology-inspired keepsakes, lunar journals, oracle decks, celestial prints, and intention candles are becoming popular holiday picks.
These gifts feel especially relevant during winter, a naturally reflective season.
6. Nostalgic Kitsch: Retro Fun with Feel-Good Energy
Holiday shoppers also want gifts that spark joy. Retro graphics, playful colours, and nostalgic motifs are reappearing across ornaments, apparel, stationery, and treat-based gift sets.
This trend merges kitsch charm with today’s “treat culture” — giving permission to indulge in fun, carefree gifts that feel sentimental but lighthearted.
7. Playfully Naive Design: Imperfect, Human, Joyful
As AI-generated visuals flood the digital world, consumers are gravitating toward designs that feel imperfectly human.
Hand-drawn fonts, doodled illustrations, and childlike patterns are dominating greeting cards, tags, and small gifts. Their charm lies in their sincerity — they feel honest, warm, and approachable.
This trend pairs naturally with both sustainability and keepsake-driven gifting, making hand-crafted items even more desirable.
Holiday Gifting in 2025: A Season of Meaning, Mindfulness, and Warmth
Taken together, these trends point to a powerful cultural shift:
People want gifts that connect — with loved ones, with themselves, and with the planet.
Whether it’s sustainable materials, personalized keepsakes, or cozy items that turn the home into a sanctuary, the most beloved gifts this season are those that feel thoughtful, tactile, and emotionally grounded.