Have you brought out the tree yet? If not, what are you waiting for? While now is the perfect time to start decorating for the holiday season, some of us started putting out decorations up as soon as the last trick-or-treater came to our door.
Apparently, putting up your decorations early says a lot about you. First, it says that you’re nostalgic.
“Although there could be a number of symptomatic reasons why someone would want to obsessively put up decorations early, most commonly for nostalgic reasons either to relive the magic or to compensate for past neglect,” psychoanalyst Steve McKeown 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.”
There are lots of ways that Christmas can make us feel nostalgic.
“It may be a bittersweet feeling. Perhaps the holidays serve as a reminder of when a loved one was still alive. Or maybe looking at a Christmas tree reminds someone of what life was like when they still believed in Santa,” psychotherapist Amy Morin said. “For people who have lost a loved one, the holidays may serve as a reminder of happy times they had with that person in the past. Decorating early may help them feel more connected with that individual.”
Putting up decorations early serves as a way to get those good time Christmas vibes going as long as possible.
“Decorations are simply an anchor or pathway to those old childhood magical emotions of excitement. So putting up those Christmas decorations early extend the excitement!” McKeown explained.
Putting up your Christmas decorations earlier usually means that you are a happier person.
“It does create that neurological shift that can produce happiness,” psychologist Deborah Serani told TODAY. “I think anything that takes us out of our normal habituation, the normal day in, day out … signals our senses, and then our senses measure if it’s pleasing or not. Christmas decorating will spike dopamine, a feel-good hormone.”
Putting up decorations earlier can also mean that you are more social.
The Journal of Environmental Psychology says that putting up decorations outside can show that you’re accessible and serves as “a way of communicating their accessibility to neighbors.”
Houses with decorations are perceived as “more friendly and cohesive.”
So, deck your halls without thinking twice about what your neighbors will think!
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