Every Christmas person out there waits for Halloween to be over so that they can officially start counting down until the December 25th. If you're a fan of the festive period, you'll no doubt have your beauty advent calendar ready and the Prosecco Christmas crackers chilling in the fridge.
But there's always that one person who complains that the Christmas hits have started playing in the supermarket too early, or expresses outrage that you're already watching Love, Actually.
However, now's the time to gather your fellow Christmas-loving friends because experts actually say that prepping for the holiday season early could be the key to your happiness. Apparently, getting the Christmas tree and Harry Potter baubles out early could make you happier, and it's all down to our memories.
Psychoanalyst Steve McKeown previously told Unilad: "In a world full of stress and anxiety, people like to associate to things that make them happy and Christmas decorations evoke those strong feelings of the childhood. Decorations are simply an anchor or pathway to those old childhood magical emotions of excitement. So putting up those Christmas decorations early extends the excitement!"
See? There's science behind it - so there's no need to hold back and wait until we're firmly in December. Psychotherapist Amy Morin also told the website: "Nostalgia helps link people to their personal past and it helps people understand their identity. For many, putting up Christmas decorations early is a way for them to reconnect with their childhoods."
And they're not the only ones who think so. Science Direct published research in 2020 that shows people who prepare early are also seen as more personable, writing: "People see those with Christmas decorations as a cue that the residents were friendly and cohesive. Decoration interacted with sociability in a complex but interpretable way.
"In the absence of Christmas decorations, raters accurately distinguished between the homes of sociable and non-sociable residents; in open ended comments, they attributed their impressions to the relatively more 'open' and 'lived in' look of the sociable residents' homes.
"When Christmas decorations were present, raters actually attributed greater sociability to the non-sociable residents, citing a more open appearance as the basis for their judgements. The results support the idea that residents can use their home's exterior to communicate and integrate themselves into a neighbourhood."
So what the experts are basically saying is that it's fine to put your Christmas tree up immediately.
