Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • Article
  • Journal of the Association for Consumer Research

Family Rituals Improve the Holidays

By: Ovul Sezer, Michael I. Norton, Francesca Gino and Kathleen Vohs
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

Rituals are central to family life. Three studies (N = 1098) tested the relationship between family rituals and holiday enjoyment and demonstrated that family rituals improve the holidays because they amplify family closeness and involvement in the experience. In Study 1, participants who reported having family rituals on Christmas were more likely to spend the holiday with family and to enjoy the holiday more. Moreover, while simply spending the holiday with family was associated with greater enjoyment, enacting a ritual while with family added significantly to that enjoyment. Study 2 replicated these findings for family rituals pertaining to a secular holiday, New Year’s Eve. Study 3 used experimental design and had participants either describe their rituals and then report their holiday enjoyment (as in Studies 1 and 2) or report their holiday enjoyment and then describe their rituals; in both conditions, being with family and enacting a ritual was associated with the greatest enjoyment, suggesting that it is having enacted rituals—and not merely reflecting on them—that enhances enjoyment. Participants were unlikely to engage in individual rituals (that is, on their own, without family involvement) and when they did, individual rituals were not associated with holiday enjoyment. In sum, three studies consistently demonstrate that family rituals on holidays are associated with feelings of closeness and greater intrinsic interest, leading to holiday enjoyment.

Keywords

Happiness; Behavior; Satisfaction; Family and Family Relationships

Citation

Sezer, Ovul, Michael I. Norton, Francesca Gino, and Kathleen Vohs. "Family Rituals Improve the Holidays." Special Issue on the Science of Hedonistic Consumption. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research 1, no. 4 (October 2016): 509–526.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Read Now
  • Purchase

About The Authors

Michael I. Norton

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
→More Publications

Francesca Gino

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • June 2024
    • Faculty Research

    Pal's Sudden Service (B)

    By: Gary P. Pisano, Francesca Gino and Ruth Page
    • 2024
    • Faculty Research

    The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions

    By: Michael Norton
    • September 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Irrationality in Action: Decision-Making Exercise

    By: Alison Wood Brooks, Michael I. Norton and Oliver Hauser
More from the Authors
  • Pal's Sudden Service (B) By: Gary P. Pisano, Francesca Gino and Ruth Page
  • The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions By: Michael Norton
  • Irrationality in Action: Decision-Making Exercise By: Alison Wood Brooks, Michael I. Norton and Oliver Hauser
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College.