Collecting Christmas: Holiday Enthusiasm and Collecting Are Intertwined

Christmas is a thematic focus and meaningful outlet for collecting tendencies.

Posted December 22, 2024 | Reviewed by Abigail Fagan

Many people buy excessive Christmas gifts, ornaments, trees, house decorations, and more. We have a friend who engages in this Christmas spirit, and I have permission to use her name, Linda Lugar, from Carmel, Indiana. Linda has three Christmas trees, multiple teddy bears under the trees, and life-size Santas. Also, her Christmas collection of Spode dinnerware features the holiday tree. Why do Linda and many others embrace Christmas in this enthusiastic way? In fact, there are neuropsychological underpinnings.

Identity . Any collector sees her or his collection as an extension of themselves. It showcases their values, interests, and passions. For Linda, the Christmas collection reinforces her role as a festive, nurturing, and celebratory person, which I can confirm. The Santas, for example, symbolize warmth and joy—qualities that Linda embodies and projects.
Emotional Positives. Collecting Christmas items offers a tangible way to connect with warm memories , particularly of family or childhood . Santas, ornaments, and decorations become physical anchors for positive emotional states tied to Christmases past. Also, decorating provides a sense of stability and emotional safety. It is tradition!
Symbolism and Meaning. Linda’s Christmas collection transcends mere decoration and takes on an almost sacred quality. It imbues her home with meaning, transforming it into a unique space unlike others.
Social Tool. When Linda shares her collection with friends and family, it strengthens her interpersonal relationships with them. The decorations invite admiration, spark conversations, and create shared memories. I can vouch for this, too. It happened to my husband and me when we visited Linda’s home this holiday season.

Additionally, Christmas items connect Linda to a larger community of enthusiasts who share her passion. This reinforces her sense of belonging to a group and validates her behavior.

Sensory Pleasures. The visual spectacle of Santas, trees, and Teddy bears brings Linda joy. In addition, the process of acquiring, arranging, and displaying a collection can induce flow—a state of intense focus and engagement .
Legacy Building. Linda’s Christmas collection could also serve as a legacy for future generations, ensuring that her traditions for the holiday are passed down . This ties into the need to create something that outlasts oneself.
The Endowment Effect and Dopamine Rush. The psychological principle of the endowment effect (Mueller, 2019) suggests that people assign more excellent value to items they own than those they don’t possess. Linda’s attachment to her Santas and Christmas items likely grows over time, making it difficult to part with them and reinforcing her desire to expand the collection.

Additionally, acquiring new pieces likely releases dopamine (Mueller, 2019), providing an emotional boost and reinforcing her behavior. This upper stimulated by buying Christmas accessories could explain the continual growth of her Christmas decoration collections.

The behaviors of Linda and others such as decorating extensively, baking, gift-giving, and curating an expansive collection suggest that Christmas enthusiasm and collecting can be deeply intertwined. The holiday serves as both a thematic focus and a meaningful outlet for innate collecting tendencies, which enable the participants to

Mueller, Shirley M. Inside the Head of a Collector: Neuropsychological Forces at Play. Seattle: Lucia|Marquand, [2019].

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Shirley M. Mueller, M.D., is a neuroscientist board certified in neurology and psychiatry. She is also an avid collector. Combining these two disciplines, she wrote Inside the Head of a Collector: Neuropsychological Forces at Play.

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This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.