5 Major Holiday Trends on Social Media for 2025

Why social media matters more than ever for the 2025 holiday season

Holiday campaigns used to orbit TV and in-store displays. Now, they orbit social feeds. Surveys show that most consumers plan to rely on social media as much or more than last year to find holiday gifts, and Gen Z and Gen Alpha in particular treat social as a primary discovery engine for presents and deals.

At the same time, shoppers feel more price sensitive. They hunt for value, compare across tabs, and lean on social proof to decide whether your brand is worth it. Major holiday retail studies point to three big behaviors that matter for your social strategy:

• People spread their shopping across months.
• They expect clear proof of value, not just “vibes.”
• They lean on digital tools like social media, influencers, and AI helpers when they shop.

All of that means your social presence is not “nice to have” during the holidays. It sits right in the middle of how people search, compare, and buy.

Top holiday trends on social media

1. Values-first shopping: sustainability, ethics, and transparency

Younger shoppers do not treat sustainability as a bonus feature. They expect it. Many 2025 studies show that a clear majority of Gen Z and Millennials prefer brands with strong environmental and social values, and many will pay more or switch brands to support those values.

On social, that shows up as:

• Curiosity about how products are made and shipped.
• Interest in resale, rental, and upcycled gifts.
• Strong reactions to performative or vague “green” language.

How to use this trend

• Show your receipts. Share concrete details: materials, sourcing decisions, packaging improvements, and certifications. Avoid fluffy sustainability claims that you can’t back up.
• Turn your process into content. Use short videos to walk through production, shipping, or returns. Let real team members explain how you reduce waste.
• Highlight circular options. If you offer repairs, trade-ins, resale, or refill programs, give those their own posts and story highlights.
• Connect values to benefits. Make it obvious how your practices help the planet and the shopper at the same time, for example less packaging that also makes unboxing easier.

When you do this consistently, you stop “sounding sustainable” and start looking like a brand that lives its values.

2. Social-first discovery and shopping

Social commerce has matured. In 2025, analysts expect U.S. social commerce sales to cross 100 billion dollars and to keep growing faster than overall ecommerce. At the same time, social commerce’s share of total ecommerce sales continues to increase, while surveys show that 76% percent of consumers use social to discover and research products.

Practically, this looks like:

• Shoppers treating TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube as search engines.
• People tapping straight into shops, product tags, and live shopping streams.
• A heavy shift to mobile, with more than half of holiday ecommerce happening on smartphones.

How to use this trend

• Make your product path “two taps or less.” Link product detail pages from every major post or story. Use native shopping features on TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest.
• Treat captions as search copy. Include clear product names, categories, price anchors, and common gift queries like “gift for new parents” or “under 50.”
• Use live and limited-time offers. Run live shopping sessions during key days and pin replays. Promote time-bound offers clearly in your thumbnails, titles, and overlays.
• Keep your profiles conversion ready. Audit your profile links, pinned posts, and highlights so a new visitor can understand who you are and what to buy in under 10 seconds.

If someone discovers you on social, they should feel like they landed in a fully stocked holiday shop, not a brochure.

3. Creator-led UGC and micro-influencers

Holiday shoppers still love recommendations from people they know and trust. Research on 2025 holiday shopping on social shows that people rely heavily on friends, family, and other users’ comments, and they view influencer and brand posts as helpful but less decisive than unfiltered social proof. Micro-influencers and community creators sit at the sweet spot. They feel close enough to “friends on the internet” but still have reach and expertise.

How to use this trend

• Build “creator clusters,” not one hero influencer. Partner with a mix of micro-influencers across niches and regions who actually use your product.
• Make UGC part of the brief. Encourage creators to show real-life use: unboxings, “what I actually ordered vs. what I got,” and honest pros and cons.
• Feature real customer content. With permission, repost reviews, duets, stitches, and tagged posts across your channels. Make a “holiday picks from customers” series.
• Invite participation. Run simple challenges and prompts like “Show us your holiday setup with [product]” or “Gift under [price] that surprised you.”

The goal is to let people see your product in real homes, on real people, in real holiday chaos. That kind of content does more convincing than any polished product shot.

4. Short-form, interactive video with AI support

Video still leads social performance, and short-form vertical formats keep winning attention in 2025. Industry studies highlight several shifts: AI-assisted edits, sound-off optimized creative, behind-the-scenes clips, and serialized content that rewards repeat viewing.

During the holidays, that plays out as:

• Fast, punchy TikToks and Reels that showcase one clear benefit.
• Serialized content, for example “12 days of gifts under 30” or “Daily wrapping hacks.”
• Interactive layers like polls, Q&A stickers, and AR filters that invite participation.
• AI tools generating first drafts of scripts, storyboards, and B-roll, so teams can ship more content without burning out.

How to use this trend

• Pick a few repeatable series. Instead of dozens of one-off posts, build 1–3 recurring series formats and run them all season.
• Design for sound-off first. Use tight framing, on-screen text, and captions so viewers understand the story with the volume low.
• Layer in AR and simple effects. Seasonal filters, transitions, and playful overlays give your brand a “holiday mode” without huge production costs.
• Use AI as a production assistant. Let AI tools help you draft scripts, suggest visuals, and generate variations. Then edit for tone, brand fit, and accuracy.

When you treat video as modular content, you can remix the same core ideas across multiple posts and platforms.

5. An extended holiday runway: early birds and last-minute shoppers

The holiday season keeps stretching. Social users now expect brands to start fall and winter holiday marketing as early as August or September, and many say they’re more likely to buy from brands that show up early. Surveys from late 2025 show that a large share of shoppers planned to start holiday shopping well before November, motivated by tariffs, prices, and a desire to spread spending out.

How to use this trend

• Plan in three phases.
  • Early season: August to October. Focus on wish lists, inspiration, and email or SMS signups.
  • Peak: November through Cyber Week. Prioritize promotions, bundles, and social-only deals.
  • Late season: December and New Year. Highlight last-minute options, gift cards, and how-to content for using gifts.
• Keep a consistent “light touch.” You don’t need aggressive sales messaging from August onward, but you should stay visible with soft-launch content, teasers, and signups.
• Help with logistics. Share clear dates for shipping cutoffs, in-store pickup, and extended returns. Turn each of those into a short, shareable post.
• Extend into January. Showcase “how to get the most from what you bought” tutorials and content that supports returns, exchanges, and resolutions.

You’re not only trying to win one big holiday weekend. You’re building a steady presence that supports shoppers across months.

Leveraging video to ride 2025 holiday trends

Video sits at the intersection of all these trends. It helps you:

• Bring your sustainability and values story to life.
• Make social commerce shoppable in a couple of taps.
• Turn creators and customers into the face of your brand.
• Run interactive, serialized content that keeps people coming back.

Short, platform-native videos are especially useful this season:

• Values-first clips. Show a quick before and after of your packaging, a behind-the-scenes look at your supply chain, or a founder explaining why a certain value matters to the brand.
• Shoppable demos. Pair a 15–30 second product demo with native product tagging and a clear “Tap to shop” prompt.
• Creator collaborations. Co-create videos with creators where they pick their top gifts from your catalog, talk through who they’d give each item to, and link those picks.

How Visla can help

Holiday video content does not need a huge production team. Tools like Visla help you keep up with the volume and speed that 2025 social feeds expect:

• Generate first drafts of scripts and voiceovers so you don’t start from a blank page.
• Turn blog posts, product pages, or FAQs into short video outlines.
• Quickly edit clips, add subtitles, and plug in B-roll so you can publish more often.
• Collaborate across your team in shared workspaces, so marketing, creative, and leadership can stay aligned.

The more you treat video as a repeatable process instead of a one-off project, the easier it gets to keep your holiday presence consistent and on brand.

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