As the festive season approaches, a familiar question arises: what will define the cultural mood of Christmas this year? Cartoonist Becky Barnicoat has offered her witty and insightful prediction for 2025 with a new cartoon published in The Guardian on 6 December 2025.
Decoding the 2025 Festive Zeitgeist
The single-panel cartoon, titled "What will be No 1 on the Christmas cliché charts 2025?", serves as a humorous barometer for the seasonal tropes and social conventions that are set to dominate the coming weeks. Barnicoat, known for her sharp social commentary, visually encapsulates the pressures, absurdities, and shared experiences that characterise a modern British Christmas.
While the specific visual details of the cartoon are its core strength, the concept speaks to the annual cycle of festive predictability. Each year brings a new set of ubiquitous talking points, from the frenzy of last-minute online shopping and the debate over the correct time to eat Christmas dinner, to the specific brand of familial tension that only 25 December can brew.
The Art of Observational Humour
Becky Barnicoat's work consistently finds humour in the mundane rituals of daily life, and the Christmas period provides particularly rich material. Her cartoon for December 2025 is expected to follow this tradition, holding a mirror up to the collective madness and joy of the season. The "cliché charts" framing cleverly suggests that our festive behaviours are as chart-topping and recurrent as the classic songs played on loop.
This publication continues Barnicoat's established relationship with The Guardian, where her illustrations regularly offer a poignant and funny perspective on contemporary life. The timing of the cartoon's release, in early December, positions it as a precursor to the main event, allowing readers to laugh in recognition before they've even pulled their first cracker.
Why Christmas Clichés Endure
The enduring power of these festive clichés lies in their shared nature. They function as a common cultural shorthand, a series of experiences that, despite their potential to annoy, ultimately unite people in a collective, if sometimes exasperated, understanding. Barnicoat's cartoon doesn't just mock these tropes; it celebrates them as an essential part of the seasonal fabric.
By asking what will be number one this year, the cartoon invites personal reflection. Will it be the relentless pursuit of the "perfect" organic, free-range turkey? The performative despair at yet another rerun of a beloved film? Or the specific anxiety of ensuring every gift is wrapped in sustainably sourced paper? Barnicoat's genius is in pinpointing the precise nuance of the current year's preoccupations.
In essence, the cartoon acts as a cultural time capsule for Christmas 2025. It captures the spirit of the moment—the specific worries, joys, and absurdities that will define the festive period for many across the UK. It reminds us that while the trappings may evolve, the underlying human experience of Christmas, with all its glorious clichés, remains wonderfully, comfortingly familiar.
