'Tis the season to be jolly, right?
But should we be getting jolly 20 weeks before Christmas?
Well, perhaps we should as a psychoanalyst in the UK has claimed that putting your festive decorations up early reduces anxiety, making people happier overall.
Steve McKeown, founder of MindFixers and owner of The McKeown Clinic, said if you're dying to put up the tree and plug in the fairy lights well before December, you're more likely to be in touch with your inner child.
Speaking to UNILAD, he said:
"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."
Backing up Steve's statement is a study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, which found that people who put their decorations up early are seen as more welcoming and personable by others.
Researchers discovered:
"People see those with Christmas decorations as a cue that the residents were friendly and cohesive. In the absence of Christmas decorations, raters accurately distinguished between the homes of sociable and non-sociable residents."
Right...so is mid August too early?!
