How STEM Saves Christmas

Science, technology, engineering, and math connects people in various ways. Whether it is the packaging of your gifts received on Amazon or calling your family across the world, STEM connects people and is an integral part of Christmas nowadays for many. Even if you aren't interested in STEM, we can all appreciate and reflect on how STEM affects our everyday lives, let alone Christmas. During Christmas, everyone, despite differences in culture and background, can get together, give gifts, and value each other’s company. Christmas connects many people at once, with its elaborate parties, its thought-out gifts, and its ability to bring everyone together under the theme of togetherness with a jolly spirit. STEM has led to many innovations that are the backbone of this holiday, such as the science of packaging and technology allowing others to both talk to and connect to their relatives and friends from afar by allowing long-distance communication, and easier access for getting both gifts and gift ideas for loved ones. Additionally, innovation in general has led to new technologies that have promptly changed how society functions today.

Today, with sites such as Amazon, individuals can purchase and receive products rapidly, many times even on the same day. Despite potential drawbacks of sites from critics, one can appreciate the range of products, giving various options for even last-minute shoppers and purchases that fit a wide range of budgets and incomes. Additionally, STEM has recently innovated gift ideas and shopping, specifically through new technology. For example, one company online, Perplexity, has innovated, with the use of artificial intelligence, a website and app that allows users to see gift ideas, within their budget, for their friends or family with their interests, or the user can have a surprise gift idea, allowing for many ideas for loved ones that are thoughtful late in the Christmas season. Online websites and companies today have allowed for a wider means of buying cherished gifts today, even for those who can’t go out and shop in person, and have changed the way of Christmas shopping for the foreseeable future in remarkable ways.

The art and science of packaging can also make or break a product, as well as the holidays. Through the engineering process, people have found safer ways to transport beloved gifts during the holidays. At the end of the day, who doesn’t love a nicely wrapped gift, showing one’s love and affection? Well-thought-out packaging, especially homemade packaging, can brighten someone’s day, and show thoughtful consideration in choosing and presenting gifts. Additionally, the packaging of an item can also ensure its safety before it arrives at the consumer’s door. Specifically, protective packaging ensures the safety of Christmas shoppers’ important, fragile items, crucial for the holidays. Packaging design is critical during the holiday season, and engineering and designers have allowed for innovations and changes throughout the years in packaging, not only making it more attractive for consumers and in turn to loved ones, but guaranteeing the safety and protection of gifts, thus ensuring happiness for all during the Christmas season. Postal workers, using these engineered innovations created by STEM and the many processes we have today, also affect Christmas decisively, effectively securing gifts for families who have utilized online technology for gifts for their friends and kin. In the end, STEM has affected gifts and many peoples’  lives during the holidays through engineering and technology affecting packaging, and through affecting the postal service today, which is pivotal for many during the gift-giving process and season.

Innovation in technology, such as the creation and spread of televisions to more consumers, allows for the spread of products and gift ideas and the expansion of companies, and the technology we use every day, such as smartphones, empowers connections all around the world. One of the main themes of Christmas is togetherness, connecting together over gifts, food, or simply just each others’ presence. STEM enables this specifically through the innovation of smartphones, which, with different price points and increased accessibility, have made widespread communication easier, sending a call to one’s phone in a split second, letting others communicate easily with people no matter where they are, and bringing everyone together in the spirit of Christmas. Additionally, it has allowed for the spread of products and easier access to these products, through television and widespread advertisements almost everywhere in daily life. In the end, continued innovation is imperative to Christmas, allowing for holiday cheer and for the ability to give and receive each other’s gifts, even if the gift is just hearing a loved one’s voice.

Throughout history, innovations through STEM have changed society significantly. From the postal workers to the Amazon warehouse workers to the factory workers who made your phone, changes and transformations to technology and everyday life products and organizations, STEM connects and benefits Christmas for all in many ways. When it comes to gift giving, packaging, wrapping, and all steps of the process, STEM has influenced changes in Christmas for the likely future, and changes are to come, with society constantly evolving in STEM. The engineering process has led to innovative progress in society that has not only changed the Christmas season but everyday life, regardless of one’s socioeconomic status. In the end, this Christmas, we should all celebrate the various innovations we have and be grateful for our possessions, but utmost, celebrate the ones around us, and how STEM has connected us, brought us here to our paths in life, and has influenced our lives, our togetherness and communities. 

Merry Christmas to all from STEM Students United!