How to "Christmas Spirit" - An essay on novelty in user experience design.

Since it's December, I thought it would be fitting to make an article about how to get in the Christmas mood (or "spirit" as it's commonly called). Coincidentally, utilizing the psychology behind getting in the right mood, is also common in good game design. So let's make this a holiday special, where I will explain the concept of "Christmas spirit" with user experience design theory!

Hopefully you'll be able to design the perfect holiday season for yourself, after learning what it's really all about. Which isn't necessarily to buy yourself 200+ new games during Steam's holiday sales (but that's not to say doing so, isn't going to help).

Just as the great Gaben Claus would have it.

I'm going to start out with a slightly cliché'd, but very important topic: The pursuit of happiness.

Being happy is something we all want, as much as we can get it. Almost all of us build our lives around what we think will make us happy. But strangely enough, hardly anyone has any tangible concept of "happiness," other than a gut feeling. So when we say "I want to be happy," we don't really know what we're talking about. This is a big problem, because "being in the christmas spirit" is quite simply a variant of "being happy." The only difference is that "christmas spirit" relies on certain factors, which are only present at one time a year.

Defining "happiness"

The subject itself seems pretty touchy-feely at first glance. However, it can be explained in a very elegant way, which has been done very eloquently by Jason Silva in the following video:

Now we are beginning to understand. In our pursuit of happiness, we loose sight of what it is that we are actually looking for, which is novelty. And novelty is something we can work with - both in game design, as well as when it comes to planning our holidays.

Identifying the problem

But what happens when things don't go as planned, and there is no sight of any christmassy gut-feelings throughout the entirety of December? We need to examine this, before we know how to counteract it:

December begins, December happens, December happened. But no Christmas spirit in sight. How on earth did that happen? I'll outline the problem shortly, before we open up the "aha" box:

You expect to get in the right mood, just because the season is there. However, the anticipation is gone, and your days are still about participation in monotony: You do the same things every day. No dedication, just the passing of time and the silent wish that maybe, perhaps tomorrow, you'll suddenly burst out into a huge smile and start humming jingle bells and swimming in glögg. Yet however long you wait, it doesn't happen. So you start blaming things like "no snow, no interesting calenders to watch, same as last year bla bla."

Before you know it, you'll resort to doing crazy things like putting Santa-clothes on your dog:

Who will inevitably kill you in your sleep,
before proceeding to give you "coal" for presents.

Ladies and gentlemen, we can do better than that. We now know that the experience of happiness, relies so heavily on novelty. So we can begin to consider ways to work novelty into our design.

The Christmas spirit "cheat-sheet"

We can skip through a whole lot of trouble trying to identify this issue, because we've already experienced being in the mood we seek, before. Most of us, as kids, have memories of having a very merry Christmas. All we have to do is recall those memories, then analyse them.

I'm going to use myself as the template, seeing as I know no person better. So here is what was going down, back when I was a little doodle-poop. Remember that I am only talking in terms of what personally gave me the Christmas-jitters:

The anticipation

Holy shit, the anticipation. Never was there a time of year, besides from on my birthday, where I was more excited about stuff in wrappings. This was one of those things that were completely defining my experience; just waiting, staring at said wrappings. Sometimes I'd even get so excited, that when the time finally came for me to unwrap my presents, I almost felt that the wrapping was more interesting, than what was inside.

It was almost unbearable when we had to dance around the tree. Always those agonizing 15 minutes, eyeballing my presents every time, knowing that I would soon be experiencing the rush, of learning what was inside.

"Hark the angels- THERE IT IS AGAIN!"

Then there's the 24-episode TV calendars, typically accompanied by a physical cardboard calendar, with each cover revealing a hint for today's episode. That combination was absolutely ingenious, when it came to building anticipation - generating novelty. We'll get back to why that is, in the summary.

Finally, there's the aesthetics. The decorations are hugely important here, in two different regards. Remember that we are using my childhood as a reference frame here, so decorations meant more than just hanging them up; it also included creating new decorations in school. We'd spend a whole day just making things to hang up on the classroom walls and in the hallways, eat Christmas treats and all that jazz. Then until holidays finally started, we'd be surrounded by our work, as a reminder throughout the hours we'd spend in school.

Let's tally all that up and do a quick analysis of why these things mattered (and still do):

My childhood in summary and analysis:

Anticipation is paramount, that much can be said. But the reason it is so, is for the same reason that worry can sometimes consume people; our brains can only process one thing at a time. Anticipation, once properly established, is a constant factor. This leaves little room for much else, so you can imagine how it'll do wonders to your mood.

But how is anticipation manifested, in the examples above?

The presents: With the presents, comes a measure of uncertainty. We're left guessing, speculating, scratching our heads as to what might be in those delicious wrappings. However, this only works so long as we genuinely believe that there is something contained within, which we will appreciate.

This presents a problem, as we grow older and suddenly have cash coming out of every orifice. We're much more willing to spend money on ourselves, than we are buying presents for others. This is logical, since the personal benefit of a purchase for ourselves, significantly outweighs the benefits in buying the same thing for someone else.

Dead trees are my favorite currency!

We then transpose this logic to our level of anticipation, which in turn makes us think that "we can only get something lesser for Christmas, than what we can buy for ourselves." We don't acknowledge this consciously, but it presents a pretty big obstacle when it comes to appreciating what we've got. Our sense of anticipation simply flatlines.

However, regardless of the amount of money we can make, there's still ways to combat this mentality.

Step 1 is simply acknowledging it. Say it out loud, then you'll realize how stupid it is, and this will make you reflect upon the matter.

Step 2 is thinking about the memorability of the gift, rather than its direct applicability to your daily life. In my case, this typically means a good game - be it digital or a boardgame - because I like to observe all the rules of play. This means, when I'm playing, I generate a lot of memories. Since I drink a lot of tea, it might also be a funny cup, which is almost always present.

But we'll come back to memorability in a moment.

What you should take from this, is to really think about memorability, when you write your own wishlist. Christmas shouldn't be about how beneficially you can think, it's about how much of an experience it would be.

The Christmas calendar (physical and TV-calendar): The calendar is really important, when it comes to building anticipation. But this is only when a physical calendar, reveals something about a TV-calendar: Every time you open up a cover, there's a hint for today's episode.

One of the best Christmas months I've ever had, I remember, was when I was a kid watching the "Bamse & Kylling" calendar on TV for the first time, while opening the covers on a huge cardboard calendar, every morning. We only had one calendar for the show, despite being two kids, so we'd take turns.

I try to forget that these are grown men in costumes.

There's several things to take from this. Firstly, there's the fact that we opened the calendar in the morning. This is important, because the show aired in the evening, so we'd be given room for speculation throughout the entire day. Many of the kids at school would also watch this, so it'd often permeate at least one of our conversations in class. This can be hard to replicate, but the point is to not be alone in participating.

If we refer back to the start of this summary and analysis, we recall that our brains can only process so many inputs at once. If you can make these discussions a prominent input, throughout December, you'll most likely see that you can't help it but get in the Christmas mood, as it becomes such a big part of your daily routine throughout the month.

Also, while chocolate calendars are great, you can probably see how they do not provide the same kind of mental stimuli. I still get a chocolate calendar every year, though, because they're as much a part of what I consider to be Christmas, as the decorations are.

Even if you can't get a calendar that goes in tandem with a TV-show, having one with motifs rather than chocolate, still means you'll think more about the content. Getting chocolate, while delicious, boils down to the caveman-parts of your brain craving sugar and fat. That's why some people end up eating all the chocolates early on. Unfortunately, this is a very instinctive reaction, meaning that there is very little sustained attention to what you are doing, in the moment that you do it.

The "persistent touches": Back when I went to (what I think you guys call) elementary school, we'd have one day that was entirely dedicated to making our own Christmas decorations. It was often right before December started, so that we'd be surrounded by the things we'd made, for all the days in the month, that we went to school.

Approximation of how the classroom ended up looking every year.
(including the bar)

On that day, we'd also make 24 drawings to hang up on the wall, each under a cover. This feeds back into what I've mentioned above, with a motif-based calendar. However, with its placement in the classroom, taking up a wall, it also doubled as a countdown.

With a massive countdown on the wall, surrounded by the things we'd made, every day was a reminder of what month it was, rather than a distraction. When I went from home, I arrived at more Christmas decor, rather than simply move away from what was at my house.

The memorability

We mentioned memorability earlier, but what does it really mean? When something is memorable, it's something we've consciously (or subconsciously) acknowledged, as being worth remembering. This happens whether we want it or not, so it can be both good and bad memories. I'd wager a guess and say that we don't want to build this around bad memories, though.

However, in terms of getting in the "Christmas spirit," what does memorability provide?

To understand this, we'll have to look at how we perceive the passing of time. One of the most common complaints about Christmas, is that it went by too fast. Yet if we look at the right here and now, evidently, the world is going at the same pace as it always has. So it can't be because we're literally moving slower.

No, it roots in our memories. All we have is the here and now. However, our notion of "past" relies on the accumulation of memories. The more significant events you can recall, in the shorter the time-span, the slower you'll perceive the time that has passed. When we say "Christmas went by too fast this year!" it's because we've been doing the same thing throughout the month, which collapses into a singular memory - and with it, collapses our notion of time.

Pun intended.

To combat this, we need to deliberately generate memorability in what we do. This can be difficult to tackle, if we don't know much about how our brains work. Therefore, I'm going to tell you what I'll do next year and why I'll do it that way:

Creating a personal calendar: Just like I did when I went to elementary school, I'm going to make my own calendar. I'm not sure if I'll draw motifs for every cover, but I will most certainly have daily activities listed under each and every one of them. This reflects back to what I talked about, with anticipation for the day. But most importantly, it's about deliberately forcing yourself to do things, that are outside of your daily routine.

For me, personally, every day is going to have a reminder about watching today's episode of the TV-calendar (including the time it airs). This matters, because a show is an evolving narrative, with no repetition. While it might not be the big game-changer in enhancing your experience, it will most certainly lay a decent groundwork for memorability each day.

However, doing activities outside of the norm, is also really important. Include some daily routines in your calendar as well, like days you work out, you write "work out" in the calendar. This makes it much easier mentally, to feel like the "out of the ordinary" is worked into your "ordinary," so you don't skip out on Christmas activities, because you feel like they're blocking your workout routine, for example.

You can be both buff and Santa.

What can you do, then? Bake some cookies, make decorations, go on walks in the forest, find out where the most impressive decorations around are located, then visit them. I can guarantee you that there will be a million things to do, if you just research properly or ask around. Or try to do something extra about the things you would normally do anyway. For example, don't just go to the mall and buy a Christmas tree, find a barn on the countryside where they sell them, instead.

A very interesting benefit from making the calendar your personal to-do list, is also the fact that it works as a referential reminder. Every time you look at it, you recall what you've been doing, which helps segment even the similar memories.

Making your own decorations: I don't care how much Christmas decor you already have, make some more! This isn't just for the sake of hanging it up, it's for the fact that the creation-event itself, makes for a very prominent memory. You'll have to sit down and reflect over "what is Christmas-like," then put that to paper/cardboard/whatever you use. When you look at this decor later, your brain will fetch those memories and all the associations you thought about, when you were making them.

If you have way too much decor already (like that's possible), there's no need to make this stuff out of expensive materials. You can always use coloured paper, which you can throw out at new year's.

Just do stuff you normally wouldn't do: Even if it isn't super Christmassy, think about things that could be interesting, which you normally don't do. I mentioned a walk in the forest, for example. Anything that's unique in the sense, that it is not normal for you to do, qualifies. Just make sure you bring something Christmas-related, like everyone wears a Santa hat and you have glögg in thermos.

Sometimes, the outside looks like this!

In the end, it all comes down to overcoming what's called "hedonic adaptation." Which is a fancy way of saying that you should do something, which you have not been over-exposed to before.

Hedonic adaptation can be an issue in more cases than just getting in the Christmas spirit. Here's a general video on why it's a hindrance, and what tackling it might bring. You'll recognize the concept of memorability appearing, as one of the key benefits for overcoming this issue:

I try to work on this every day, but it's also pretty key to getting in the right mood, during Christmas. Making the aforementioned list, is going to help us stick it to the man/our hedonic adaptation, and break with the norms that makes our time-perception a muddled mess.

This also leaves us rounding things off nicely, once again returning to the importance of novelty. It's ok that you do the same things every year, on Christmas. As long as you don't do the same things on Christmas, as you do the rest of the year - at least not do the same things the same way, as you do the rest of the year.

I think that makes it a wrap!

___________________________

Here's a piece of music to summarize my emotions right about this time of year, hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do:

So with that said, I just want to wish you all a (slightly late) merry Christmas and a happy new year!