Big family holidays are strange. Usually, they’re a mix of hugs and casseroles, along with a surprising amount of tiny arguments, which are often due to five decades’ worth of habits and expectations in one house. Even picking a TV channel to watch is a struggle. Here are eighteen generational differences that complicate family holidays. Have you ever had to deal with these?
Booking Trips
An older family might buy their flight the day after the previous holiday ends. Meanwhile, a younger person waits for fare alerts and buys tickets three weeks before departure. Someone insists on driving. By the time everyone figures out who’s arriving when, the plans have changed three times, and nobody really knows what’s going on.
Everyone Uses a Different Way to Communicate
There’s always a grandparent who insists on calling and another family who only texts. As for the teenagers, they reply exclusively through group chats. Half the family isn’t able to open the schedule that was sent as a Google Calendar invite, so nobody’s quite sure who’s bringing extra chairs or when the airport pickup actually is.
Posting Family Photos
Yes, taking a group photo is easy. What happens after isn’t. Older relatives think pictures should stay in a printed album because that’s how they’ve always done it, but younger family members automatically post everything to Instagram Stories with location tags. Yet some parents don’t want their kids’ faces online. Now, one photo has become a conversation about privacy.
Traditional Dishes
One of the older family members’ signature dishes contains meat. Unfortunately, a younger niece is vegan, and someone else is gluten-free. Both of them expect to be catered to, forcing the kitchen to juggle separate pans and carefully label cutting boards. They also have to make multiple grocery runs. Rather than being picky, the issue is that food rules have changed a lot over the decades.
Generational Habits Around Alcohol
The bar cart is fully stocked, like it is every year. However, some of the younger adults don’t drink, while a few prefer low-ABV beers. Another cousin lives in a state where cannabis is legal. Such a difference in approach to beverages and house rules means that the family now has to decide a sort of group policy that everyone can agree on.
Gift-Giving Styles
Many older people tend to prefer surprise gifts wrapped in shiny paper. But younger people usually enjoy getting emailed gift cards with exact wishlist links. This difference in opinion over what counts as a “real” gift is bound to cause issues, as some family members seem ungrateful for their presents.
Punctuality and Arrival Windows
Even something as simple as arrival times isn’t the same across generations. Most of the time, older people stick closely to the invitation time, and they expect the event to start then. Younger relatives may see it as more flexible. This gap changes how meals are timed and when games start, with even a short delay rearranging the flow of the entire day in a way that makes things far more complicated.
Child Discipline and House Rules
Over the years, approaches to raising kids have changed a lot, and it’s easy to see those differences during holiday meals. Some older family members still stress strict manners and staying at the table until the end, but others are more relaxed. They’ll allow quick breaks. Unfortunately, this difference in expectations usually shows up when one adult steps in to correct a child using rules that don’t match what the parents use.
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