Ornaments have long been considered a Christmas tree staple, but Gen Z is trading the glass baubles for elegant bows this holiday season. With Christmas a month away, Generation Z — people born between 1996 and 2012 — are buying spools of ribbon in all sizes, colors, and patterns to tie into bows and hang on their Christmas trees. Their reasons for straying from the traditional Christmas ornaments are varied, including not wanting to worry about breakage, bulky ornaments taking up too much of the tree, and having to worry about packing them away at the end of the holiday season. While some people think the bow design is too “plain Jane,” others say bows are a “quiet luxury,” whatever that means. The benefits of decorating with bows include the method being a time-saver that requires nothing more than a few bobbie pins, as well as the design being more cat-proof than the ornament design. Regardless of how they decorate their Christmas trees, Gen Z is definitely going for real over artificial when it comes to the tree itself. Meanwhile, 65% of “Boomers” say they're sticking with an artificial tree.
