Every festive season arrives with its familiar patterns of tradition: lights, gifts, family gatherings, and more. Yet beneath this surface lies a more complex reality, one defined by a mix of emotions, contradictions and invisible pressures that shape how people celebrate, spend and connect.
This is precisely what our experts Ruchika Gupta (CEO) and Camilla Hasler (Sales Director, UK & EU) set out to reveal in their ESOMAR 2025 session, “Festive Faultlines: The Story Beneath the Sparkle,” stating how the emotions beneath the celebrations tell a very different story.
Their consumer behavior research uncovered the hidden ‘faultlines’ that shape how people make purchasing decisions and why understanding these hidden emotional tensions gives brands a sharper edge during the most emotionally charged season of the year.
The Hidden Reality Behind the Celebrations
According to consumer behavior research carried out by Borderless Access, people stretch themselves to preserve the magic even when it costs them peace of mind. Across regions, the holiday shopping trends speak volumes:
- Two-thirds of UK mothers report feeling financial strain around the holidays.
- Half of Italian families make detailed Christmas budgets.
- Nine out of ten Spanish households still plan to buy multiple gifts even when finances are tight.
The festive window becomes an arena of heightened sensitivity. On one hand it offers a rich opportunity to engage, uplift and drive sales. On the other, tone-deaf messaging, ill-timed offers or assumptions of abundance can backfire and alienate consumers who are ever-more aware of trade-offs.
Successful brands are those that recognize the dual emotional state and respond with targeted offers, messages and experiences that feel realistic, empathetic and aligned with the moment’s tension.
Seeing Beneath the Surface with Deeper Consumer Insights
The session explored how Borderless Access is tackling the challenge of uncovering deeper emotional drivers by going beyond surface-level behavior. In doing so, it empowers business leaders to translate emotion-led insights into actionable strategies, enabling sharper positioning, smarter product design, and more proactive brand engagement.
On the surface, holidays are about celebration, generosity, and spending. Beneath lies restraint, guilt, and fatigue. These contradictions can’t be fully captured by traditional surveys or after-the-fact recall.
That’s where Deep Sense, Borderless Access’ proprietary solution for qualitative research, comes in. It’s built to capture the fleeting, in-the-moment emotions that define how people actually feel as the festive season unfolds. This is something traditional surveys often miss out on.
The result? Not just what people do, but why they do it.
This detailed approach to consumer behavior research revealed that emotions don’t move in neat, predictable lines. Instead, there is a constant back-and-forth between joy and guilt, excitement and fatigue, generosity and self-control. The most meaningful insights, it turns out, live in those micro-moments where emotions contradict each other.
Beyond Consumption: The Longitudinal Immersion Approach
To truly understand how consumers live through these emotional shifts, Borderless Access conducted eight-week longitudinal immersions across multiple regions, tracking parents’ rituals, stresses, highs and lows to uncover the emotional undercurrents behind their festive-season choices.
The method departed from traditional survey norms in four key ways:
1. Real-time, not retrospective:
Feelings were captured as they happened, before memory and justification set in.
2. Multi-layered capture:
Thoughts, photos, and voice notes offered a full-circle understanding of daily emotional states.
3. Human rhythms, not research schedules:
Instead of interrupting participants, the team adapted to their festive flow — joining their time, not imposing theirs.
4. Finding meaning in unexpressed emotions:
The emotions tracked (joy, guilt, stress, relief) were mapped into decision-making frameworks, helping brands act on them meaningfully.
Such an immersive approach to gaining consumer behavior insights allows the Borderless Access team to transform behavioral data into real emotional drivers that guide festive season decisions.
The Festive Journey Isn’t Linear
When you plot the festive journey, it looks neat — plan, purchase, celebrate. But the emotional experience is anything but linear. Borderless Access’ consumer behavior research revealed that the weeks leading to Christmas are a cycle of anticipation, fatigue, stress, and relief.
Here’s how the consumer behavior evolves across moods:
| Stage | Mood | Behavior | Brand Opportunity |
| Pre-November | Hopeful yet cautious | Early browsing | Spark interest with wishlists and light inspiration |
| Early–Mid November | Excitement meets confusion | Window shopping, list-making | Simplify with curated picks and bundles |
| Late November (Black Friday) | Stress and control-seeking | Deal hunting | Reinforce value as smartness, not cheapness |
| Early December | Festive buzz, shared rituals | Early gifting | Offer reassurance — “you’re on track” nudges |
| Mid December | Panic and pressure | Last-minute buying | Be the “rescue hero” — fast delivery, reliability |
| Christmas Week | Relief, gratitude | Reflection, connection | Encourage sharing and memory-marking |
It shows how awareness does not necessarily translate into readiness. People start thinking about Christmas early, but they don’t always act. Brands that help them convert excitement into guided action through structure, reassurance, and emotional support win the season.
Emotional Faultlines That Drive Festive Decisions
The research uncovered a set of three universal tensions that shape holiday behavior across cultures and markets.
1. Gifts as Emotional Insurance
Gifting isn’t just about generosity; it’s about emotional safety.
Behind every present is a hidden worry: Will this protect me from disappointing someone?
In this light, gifts become symbols of care that protect against guilt or judgment.
What This Means for Brands: Be the brand that helps consumers show they care.
2. The Sense of Belonging
Festivities test family dynamics. Between grandparents, parents, and children, the definition of “doing it right” is constantly negotiated. Tradition meets modernity, and belonging is something people work to earn.
What This Means for Brands: Empower consumers to navigate family dynamics with confidence.
3. Magic vs. Authenticity
People always juggle between curating the perfect, picture-ready moment and embracing the messy, real one. The tension between magic and authenticity gives celebrations their meaning.
What This Means for Brands: Highlight the beauty in real, imperfect moments while still inspiring wonder and joy.
Borderless Access’ Edge: Turning Emotions into Actions
Throughout the session, our experts highlighted how Borderless Access is combining advanced digital research methodologies with authentic human understanding to turn festive insights into intelligence that drives smarter, more empathetic brand decisions.
Here’s how their approach is making a difference:
1. Real-Time Emotional Mapping
Deep Sense captures emotional reactions as they happen, using in-the-moment input instead of delayed recall. It allows clients to see micro-shifts in mood and motivation — essential in fast-moving, high-stakes seasons like Christmas.
2. Cross-Regional Immersion
With panels spanning multiple markets, Borderless Access uncovers universal emotional triggers while capturing local nuances.
3. Integrated Human + AI Insight
While AI assists in analyzing emotional data, the interpretation remains deeply human. The focus isn’t on replacing judgment with automation but ensuring the insights retain empathy and cultural intelligence.
4. Action-Oriented Frameworks for Clients
Borderless Access’ “Emotion-to-Meaning” framework translates feelings like guilt, control, and relief into actionable marketing strategies, timing campaigns effectively and helping brands communicate with more empathy.
Lessons for Researchers and Marketers
The “Festive Faultlines” framework holds practical value for anyone working with consumer data:
For Researchers
- Decode, don’t just describe. Focus on the tension points, not just rituals.
- Follow emotions in motion. Real-time, longitudinal methods reveal more than one-time surveys ever could.
- Embrace contradictions. Insight often hides where joy and stress intersect.
For Marketers
- Guide action early. Turn awareness into readiness through structure and reassurance.
- Shift how you define value. Deals communicate dignity and control, not just affordability.
- Anchor communication in emotion. Reassurance, belonging, and authenticity cut across every category from retail to travel to FMCG.
The Much-Needed Shift Towards Human-Centric Insights
The session ended with a reminder that consumers behind every purchase manage complex inner worlds: wanting to give more than they can afford and feel close even when exhausted.
That’s why Borderless Access continues to push the industry toward more human-centric, emotion-aware insights in consumer behavior research.
By seeing consumers not as data points but as people balancing contradictory feelings, brands can communicate with empathy and build loyalty that lasts beyond the holidays. Borderless Access is always helping brands capture these feelings and deliver the best to the consumers.
