Tinsel and Home Alone back in style as TikTok seeks comfort in #90sChristmas
Tinsel, DIY tree decorations, deep burgundy drapes – and Home Alone on VHS.Christmas has gone retro on TikTok, and in people’s living rooms.The app has reported a surge in Christmas decor videos, with an emphasis on nostalgia as users embrace festive looks from bygone eras.For younger TikTokers, that means the 90s.More than 8,000 videos have been posted under the hashtag #90sChristmas, celebrating a look that includes multicoloured tree lights, homemade felt ornaments and – in a post with nearly 4m views – VHS tapes of Christmas classics such as the Macaulay Culkin caper.
TikTok said Christmas decor videos had increased by 100% over the past 12 months, with commentators saying the emphasis on nostalgia reflects a need for stability in uncertain times.“There is a sense of inherent nostalgia in these trends,” says Hugh Metcalf, editor of the interior decor website Livingetc.com.“These are not super-contemporary looks.It’s a search for comfort from yesteryear when things right now are a bit more uncertain.
”WGSN, a consumer trend forecasting firm, says the 90s Christmas trend indicates a general rising nostalgia for that decade, which also came across during Halloween as an embrace of “tacky decor” pushed at notions of what constitutes good taste.Metcalf says TikTok is “super influential” for Christmas aesthetics across all generations, with online influencers having greater sway over festive aesthetics than they do over interior decor trends across the rest of the year, which tend to be the province of design professionals.“These Christmas trends are for things people have seen and experienced before,” Metcalf adds.“It’s appealing to personal histories and our sense of emotion, a bit of relief from trying to get the newest, most interesting interior design idea.”Even more popular than the 90s take this year is Ralph Lauren Christmas, riffing on the American designer’s signature looks with deep colours, rich wooden panelling and green tartan prints.
TikTokers has also offered tips on how to afford a festive take on the luxury brand if you’re on a budget.WGSN says the Ralph Lauren yuletide aesthetic represents a broader push for “new classic iterations and traditional vibes” over the Christmas season.Describing the trend as “cross-generational nostalgia”, WGSM says it is manifesting itself in looks like cosy knits, windowsill candles and bannister garlands.“Explorations of these classic looks are gaining strength even among younger consumers,” says Cassandra Gagnon, a WGSN strategist.If the late 20th century isn’t distant enough as we peer through the retro tinsel from our 2025 vantage point, then WGSN also reports interest in “opulent antiquity”, including velvet Christmas stockings and tree skirts.
It means terms such as “Little Women Christmas” – inspired by the Louisa May Alcott classic – are also trending on the platform.Time has also been kinder to The Holiday, a romantic comedy film which received some negative reviews on its release nearly two decades ago but has become a decor influence on TikTok this year as well.Named after the film’s director, the #NancyMeyersAesthetic hashtag has more than 35,000 videos – Meyers also directed Father of the Bride and The Parent Trap – with the Christmas iteration focusing on warm interiors and the traditional festive look seen elsewhere on the app.But in terms of the soundtrack for the season, another decade wins: the 80s.Last Christmas by Wham! is the most searched Christmas song on TikTok so far this month.
Rowing’s answer to snowcross, BMX and beach volleyball is coming to LA
At a point when most rowers are pounding away on rivers in the wind and rain through the dark winter months, a new breed are honing their skills in brighter climes surrounded by sun, sand and waves, all the while dreaming of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.Out of 17 sports that proposed an extra discipline to the International Olympic Committee, rowing came out on top with its beach sprints format added to the LA 2028 programme. While many may have noticed the addition of five new sports in baseball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash, a mini-revolution is happening on the water within a sport that will no longer have a lightweight category but will have five coastal rowing events in 2028.Coastal beach sprints shake up this most traditional and predictable of sports by taking the core elements of rowing – a need for extreme levels of fitness and psychological toughness – and adding new layers of jeopardy and a beach-party vibe. The discipline involves a head-to-head format and begins on land with athletes running down the beach and jumping into their boats at the water’s edge, then racing out around a buoy before hurtling back to dry land, leaping out of their boats and sprinting up the beach
Joshua and Paul provide pitiful spectacle and the worst is there’s more to come | Donald McRae
Jake Paul’s mouth opened wide, and his eyes became huge glazed saucers, as he sank to the canvas in shock and awe after a pulverising right hand from Anthony Joshua finally ended the circus in Miami late on Friday night. It looked as if Paul was trying to say “Wow!” as the severity of impact registered in his scrambled brain.Pinned in a corner of the ring midway through the sixth round, Paul could no longer run or cling to Joshua’s legs like a forlorn little boy as the gravity of boxing enveloped him. Instead, as he tried to absorb the punch that broke his jaw in two separate places, Paul was lost in his utterly stunned moment.So this is how it feels, and looks, to be hit hard by a real boxer, an Olympic gold medallist and former world heavyweight champion
Mitchell Starc urges ICC to take action on Snicko as confidence in system dwindles
The Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc has urged the International Cricket Council to step in and pay for a standard suite of umpiring technologies following a collapse of confidence in the Ashes’ decision review system during the Adelaide Test.The England team were left frustrated when the miscalibrated Snicko system cost them the crucial wicket of Alex Carey on the first day of the Test, and coach Brendon McCullum lodged a complaint in the wake of the decision.Day two only amplified calls for the system to be replaced after two more contentious decisions were made when Jamie Smith was at the crease, the first giving him a reprieve despite the batter appearing to glove the ball. Amid the Australians’ exasperation, Starc could be heard on the stump mic declaring Snicko should be “sacked”.Speaking after the Test, the left-arm paceman said he understands how fans, officials and broadcasters have become frustrated
NFL week 16: Steelers edge Lions in thriller, Jaguars stun Broncos, Panthers beat Bucs – as it happened
I don’t think there is anything I can add to that absolutely crackers ending. Pittsburgh survive by the skin of their teeth. Mike Tomlin confirms a 19th season without a losing record. Ironman. Goodnight
‘RIP’: Australian media revels in ‘deeply lamented’ death of Bazball after Ashes woe
The sports sections of Australia’s major mastheads were on Monday largely dedicated to ridiculing pre-series predictions of an England Ashes victory, and announcing the end of the tourists’ now-compromised attacking philosophy.“Bazball is dead”, asserted the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, quoting former Australian opener Simon Katich. The West Australian newspaper fully committed to the theme, mocking up a pronouncement of Bazball’s passing on ye olde parchment, “deeply lamented by Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes, but basically no one else”.However, the triumphal moment in the country’s greatest sporting rivalry was diluted in Monday’s newspapers, as a belated and ultimately hard-earned Ashes victory was pushed from the front pages by the fallout from the Bondi terror attack.In The Sydney Morning Herald, the match didn’t warrant a mention on either the front page or the news section, even though the series arrives at the SCG in less than two weeks
Wesley Plaisier claims ‘biggest victory’ in stunning upset of Gerwyn Price
By the end, all Gerwyn Price could do was applaud. There was no snarling and no sullenness from the former champion, just a nod of recognition, an admission that sometimes the other guy just plays darts from the gods. And here the other guy was Wesley Plaisier, the world No 92 from the Netherlands, a player of rich potential, but nothing that would ever have suggested he was capable of a shock of this magnitude.The talent has always been there: last year he joined a select group of players to have won a Pro Tour event despite not holding a tour card.After making his way through Q-School, this year has been harder
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