The Views: Fashion, Finances & Festivites
As December passes by, YouTube creators are taking advantage of the season and creating content around the struggles, festivities and fashions of this time of year. For Harjit and Jaz of the channel, youtwoTV, this means turning the stress of the holidays into short hilarious sketches. A common theme throughout their videos is portraying different topics through the lens of a rich person versus a broke person, such as rich students vs broke students and rich girlfriend versus broke boyfriend. For December, their latest video, entitled “Rich Christmas vs. Broke Christmas” shows the disparity of friends when money factors into how they celebrate Christmas. The couple portrays different scenarios, such as decorating and secret Santa presents from the viewpoint of rich Jaz and poor Harjit. For example, Harjit’s decorations include a miniature tree and a dirty sock for a stocking, whereas Jaz reaches a $2000 decorating budget to ensure her house looks perfect. The short video is relatable and witty, shown through their 2.14 million subscribers who flock to this channel for this kind of content. You can laugh along at some of the stressors that come with each holiday season along with 300,000 other viewers.
Speaking of decorations, many creators are taking this opportunity to show off their own versions of holiday decor in their own homes. For example, Les of Les Do Makeup took a break from her typical beauty content to show her 745,000 subscribers a look into how she gets ready for the holidays. More recently, Les has been tracking her pregnancy journey on YouTube with nursery tours and name reveals, but this video takes a break from that to get into the holiday spirit and spark some inspiration for the almost 400,000 people who have viewed the video. Les walks viewers through her home and talks about all her different trees, flowers, trinkets and toys that transform a space. These videos are the perfect opportunity for fellow decorators to become inspired and apply some of these techniques to their own space or can just be visually pleasing and relaxing for those who are curious about the way others bring Christmas into their homes.
Taking a break from Christmas content is Safiya Nygaard whose constant period fashion videos take her 8.5 million subscribers on a trip to the past to experience fashion and beauty in a different time. Following her recent engagement, Nygaard’s newest fashion excursion centers around wedding dresses. In this video, Nygaard, with the help of a stylist, collects or reconstructs vintage wedding dresses to discover what wedding fashion looked like through the decades. These begin with the Victorian era and continue through the 1980’s. With the help of a professional, Nygaard also sports the hair and makeup trends of the times completely transforming with the help of shoes and accessories into a bride of that decade. Like all her videos, Nygaard clearly does extensive research and provides many visual aids to her discussion of decade fashion, ensuring her viewers that she knows what she is talking about. Combined with a sharp wit and engaging editing, Nygaard deserves every one of the three million views she receives.
With the start of December comes vlogmas for many vloggers on YouTube. Vlogmas consists of posting daily vlogs on every day of December leading up to Christmas. Many vloggers and vlog-viewers look forward to this period every year to receive constant uploads from their favorite creators. Family vloggers, The Royal Family, partake in vlogmas where they give their 2.44 million subscribers a closer look into their lives through daily vlogs. The Royal family consists of Aija and Clarence and their two children, CJ and Legend. Every video begins with a video of the family in Christmas pajamas as their names flash across the screen and a personal theme song plays in the background. For a second, viewers can forget that they are watching YouTube as it reads more of a reality show. In this video, Aija surprises Clarence with a party bus for his birthday during a trip to NYC. The couple celebrate the night with all their friends on a rare night without kids. The Royal Family has amazing production quality and creates very flashy and engaging content, explaining their 500,000 views on this video alone.
Back to Christmas. The Ladylike YouTube channel, a sector of Buzzfeed, has been sharing holiday video after holiday video with their 3.55 million subscribers. In one such video, Ladylike member Jen attempts to make cookies without a recipe. This has been a trend going around YouTube, attempted by The Try Guys recently as well. With nothing but a table piled high with cooking supplies and various ingredients, Jen tackles the challenge of baking without instructions. Using her past knowledge, she attempts to add some holiday flair to her recipe-less cookies. Almost 250,000 viewers tuned in to see if rogue cooking could produce substantial results and probably wondered about their own ability in this scenario as well. To see if Jen succeeds or not, you will have to watch the video yourself. If attempting yourself this holiday season, be wary- result may vary.