How Did Facebook Video Creators Lean Into the Holiday Season This Year?

With the year we’ve all had, it’s understandable that many wanted to skip ahead to the holiday season–and content creators were no exception.

From Nov. 1 through Dec. 22 of this year, holiday-related social videos generated over 9.2 billion views on Facebook, according to video analytics firm Tubular Labs. While that’s a 12% decrease compared to the same stretch last year, uploads were down about 30%. So, on average, videos were still generating more views this year than they were in 2019.

In 2020, entertainment creators accounted for 1.9 billion of those views to lead all genres, followed by people & blogs (1.3 billion), general interest (one billion), and food & drink creators (922 million). But it was a DIY creator, Amber Strong, who led all individual creators with her $1 PIZZA PAN Christmas Decor DIY video, which has over 60.3 million views since it was first uploaded on Nov. 21. Disney was a top performer with holiday content as well, as their 2020 U.K. Christmas advertisement wound up with 31.6 million views after it was covered extensively by ad press. In total, the video saw over 100 million views across all Disney-owned video pages.

Food publisher Tasty had the most views of any Facebook video creator, though. Sharing a variety of holiday recipes throughout the final months of the year, Tasty had over 105 million holiday-related views in the timeframe. That was just a million more than Strong, who emphasized holiday-themed DIY projects that likely resonated with audiences stuck at home (and potentially with kids to occupy as well). Fellow DIY creator Hometalk was third with 84.4 million views, then Mr. Bean (69.8 million) and MetDaan Fashion (63.6 million).

In fact, several of the media companies included among the holiday video creators focused on DIY, with six of the top 20 being DIY-focused publishers. Even fashion and beauty-focused publications were honing in on DIY solutions to holiday looks. One of the top videos of this season was MetDaan Makeup’s Christmas Tree Hair

 (19.4 million views), geared toward kids.

Of course, beyond Tasty, food was also a staple of holiday content as well. So Yummy (35.6 million views) and Riquisimo (23.5 million) were the other food creators in the top 20, and four of the 20 most-viewed holiday Facebook videos were also food-related. Tops among those was Tasty’s Get Festive With These Holiday Cakes, which generated 21.6 million views in just four days.

According to Tubular, the sweet spot for holiday videos was uploading something that was between two and five minutes long. Those videos not only had the most views, but also the most uploads and views per upload of any duration.

Tubular also provides data on the top hashtags used for holiday videos. While hashtags aren’t as common on Facebook as they are on other platforms, they do still see plenty of use. Holiday videos using #MoreTogether generated the most views, with 30.9 million, while #LiftBlackVoices had 25.6 million, as did #BuyBlack.

Here’s a look at the top 10 holiday-themed videos on Facebook, by views:

1. Amber Strong: $1 PIZZA PAN Christmas Decor DIY (60.3 million)

2. Austin Kellerman: Take Care of Yourself (Christmas Ad)–Doc Morris (35.1 million)

3. Disney U.K.: 2020 Disney Christmas Advert (31.6 million)

4. Blossom: Affordable ways to decorate your home for the Holidays! (28.7 million)

5. Froggy999Fargo: PVC drum set has officially been added to my Christmas list! (26.8 million)

6. Facebook App: Good for the world. Good for your gift list. Join host Phoebe Robinson in this powerful episode (25.6 million)

7. Tasty: Get Festive With These Holiday Cakes (21.6 million)

8. LADbible: Caught Out–Cats Hate Christmas (21.3 million)

9. MetDaan Makeup: Christmas Tree Hair (19.4 million)

10. FOX 13’s Tyler Eliasen: When the tracking info for your Christmas package hasn’t been updated in 5 days… (17.8 million)