Before I begin today’s post, I want to say that I absolutely did not write this out of hatred, and I am very happy with all the gifts I received for christmas.

If you use TikTok, you’ve probably come across Christmas hauls, especially around the beginning of the year. These videos typically feature young girls showing off what they received for Christmas, primarily from family and friends, and then explaining what they’ve got for usually 2-4 minutes. Some of you might be enjoying watching them, but I think we need to discuss the reasons of taking these types of videos and the behaviours of the gift receivers in these videos.

Before going deeper into the subject, I’d like to mention a few psychological concepts.

Hedonic Adaptation

Hedonic adaptation refers to the phenomenon where people quickly adapt to good or bad conditions and, after a while, become less satisfied with the same things. A person who has undergone this “adaptation” is accustomed to happiness, but after a while, this happiness is no longer enough, and they crave more. In this context, by happiness, I mean the gifts they receive, and the dissatisfaction despite all the things they get. Furthermore, dopamine fatigue, which is one of the things that triggers hedonic adaptation, is a concept that refers to the brain’s inability to derive the same pleasure as before due to constant stimulation (new things, new content, new products). If the brain constantly receives “rewards”, at a certain point, nothing feels like a reward anymore. Even if 50 gifts are opened in a video, not just 2 or 5, the result is a blank facial expression.

Reason for Dissatisfaction

Besides the reasons I listed above, there’s another important reason: the individual sees themselves at the center of everything and filters the gifts through the lens of “does this appeal to me enough?” In other words, they ignore their family’s intention to make them happy by turning the gift into a performance criterion, questioning whether they deserve what they’ve received. In this context, in some videos children express disappointment easily if they don’t like a gift, without considering the gift giver’s intention.

Side note: Of course, not everyone who makes these kinds of videos is dissatisfied; some are genuinely happy, and I’m not talking about those people.

What is the Aim?

At the beginning of every video made about this topic, the girls express how grateful they are for the thousands of dollars worth of gifts they received and state that their intention is never to brag. But I think it’s clear that this has become a cliché and is something said to avoid hate and I think that If you feel the need to make such a video, especially if you’re not saying positive things about what you received in the video, or even if you are, your aim is to show the viewer that you have the money to buy these things and to brag about your gifts. Even if your followers asked you to take a video like this, I think you shouldn’t share everything you receive, especially if you’ve bought things that people with normal incomes can’t afford, because most of the people watching these videos don’t have the means to buy so many expensive things, and this video will create a feeling of inadequacy, especially among impressionable young people.

Algorithm’s Support

Of course, the TikTok algorithm also supports these videos. While these videos aren’t actually made for ragebait purposes, they can still anger some people, including myself, for justifiable reasons. I don’t feel the need to explain why, but if you watch the video at this link, you’ll understand what I mean. Pay attention to the caption while watching.

https://www.tiktok.com/@secretfloflo/video/7452519666330651946

These kinds of shocking videos receive more engagement due to the comments they get, and as a result, they start reaching a wider audience.

The Feeling of Deficiency Left on the Audience

When these videos are watched, the feeling that remains is not anger or jealousy, but a sense of inadequacy. The viewer unconsciously compares their own gifts, home, and life, feeling, “So I shouldn’t settle for this.” Christmas haul videos don’t show happiness; they whisper to the viewer that what’s normal should actually be more expensive, more abundant, and more ostentatious. The problem isn’t that someone else has a lot, but that what we have suddenly feels “too little.”

In Conclusion

Christmas haul videos show us not what wealth looks like, but how dissatisfaction has been normalized. The problem isn’t the ingratitude of a few children; it’s a digital order where discontent is applauded. Wanting more is no longer a desire, but a standard. And this standard consumes not only the viewers but also those who receive these gifts. Because when happiness becomes content, it loses its value, the gift ceases to be a gesture, and what remains is a life of perpetual insufficiency.