Gender, age and brand in children's Christmas request: A content analysis of Chilean children's letters to Santa Género, edadymarca en los pedidos de regalos d e los niños: Un análisis del contenido de las cartas de los niños Chilenos a Santa Claus

Abstract

This study examines children's consumption request in the context of a Latin American country. Concretely, this paper analyzes the amount and nature of gifts requested by Chilean children in their Christmas letters to Santa Claus in 2005. Results suggest, on the one hand, the presence of a small amount of gifts requested (as previous studies have stated), the gendered nature of them (in under-11 year-old kids) as well as a low presence of brands (as compared with figures reported by previous research). On the other hand, this study found a significant role played by age and gender in terms of type of gift and brand usage in the request.