December 25 – one of the most-anticipated days of the year – doesn’t arrive for about another six weeks.
But you may be forgiven for thinking the holiday season has already started.
It fact, it’s beginning to feel like Christmas has shifted somewhat in the Gregorian calendar, as more and more people put up their decorations up early.
While many reach for the tinsel in the days following Halloween, others deck the halls in October and some get festive even earlier.
And as shops and businesses like to flog their Christmas wares for as many weeks as possible, it’s increasingly easy to feel merry in autumn.
In the UK, retailers Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer and Home Bargains are all guilty of filling shelves with yuletide stock in September.
However, according to academics, there’s a certain type of person who is easily enticed by the Christmas spirit prematurely.
If you’ve already got your decorations up, here’s what psychologists say about you.
If you put up your Christmas decorations in November, October or even earlier, here’s what psychologists say about you (file photo)
As shops and businesses like to flog their Christmas wares for as many weeks as possible , it’s increasingly easy to feel festive in autumn. Pictured, Christmas tree on Bond Street, London, November 14, 2024
Psychologist Dr Carmen Harra said decorating early can reveal ‘concealed emotions and subconscious behavioural tendencies’, including narcissism.
Even if they don’t technically have Narcissistic Personality Disorder, far more people are self-centered in nature than we can estimate,’ she told MailOnline.
‘Narcissists derive a sense of high satisfaction from being the centre of attention, from being praised and applauded.
‘It makes sense, then, that these character traits can easily be fulfilled by turning one’s house into a winter wonderland for the entire neighborhood to admire.’
Decorating early may also ‘fill a void’ – making people feel happy when they otherwise wouldn’t – but also gives people ‘a chance to show off’ or paint a ‘picture-perfect family’.
‘Fights and rifts are common in all clans, but some people feel the need to cover up the truth of what goes on inside their households with lights and tinsel in November,’ Dr Harra added.
Amy Morin, Florida-based psychotherapist and author of the book ’13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do’, says decorating for Christmas ‘stirs up nostalgia’.
Therefore, sentimental types in particular may be in a hurry to decorate in order to recreate fond times from Christmases past.
Pictured, a 27-foot Christmas tree forming part of the Alice’s Christmas Wonderland installation at Castle Howard, near York, November 13, 2024
‘For many people, Christmas was a magical time during childhood that is filled with happy memories,’ Morin told MailOnline.
‘So it makes sense people often want to decorate early because the sooner they get out those decorations, the sooner they can experience a little bit of that magic again.
‘The earlier they decorate, the longer the season lasts and they have more time to reflect on happy memories and positive things about the world.’
The holiday season provides ‘a much-needed escape from the stress of day-to-day life’, not to mention the short days and increasingly chilly weather, adds Morin.
‘We feel better when we anticipate something good and putting up decorations early can remind people that the holidays are coming up soon.’
Professor Erlanger A. Turner, clinical psychologist at Pepperdine University, said decorating early can be explained by the ‘anticipation of joy’ theory.
‘By decorating early, people can prolong the sense of excitement and happiness associated with the holiday season,’ he told MailOnline.
‘As people begin to mentally prepare for enjoyable experiences, such as Christmas decorations and celebrations, anticipation of joy helps to boost their mood and well-being.
‘In our current global climate where there is increased exposure to violence, oppression, and uncertainty, many may see putting up decorations early as the one thing that they have control over.’
According to a 1989 study, the presence of Christmas decorations inside and outside the home can make the residents appear more sociable.
So those who make a big effort with decorations or put them up especially early may – either consciously or unconsciously – trying to establish friendships.
British psychoanalyst Steve McKeown also thinks early decorators are nostalgic and like to ‘relive the magic’, but they may also try ‘to compensate for past neglect’.
In other words, it’s possible their parents didn’t celebrate Christmas much during childhood, meaning they now want to make the most of it.
As well as decorating earlier, there’s an ever-increasing trend of people considering Christmas to be ‘over’ as soon as December 25 ends.
But Christmas Day is only the first of the 12 days of Christmas, the period in Christian theology celebrating Jesus Christ’s Nativity.
Lasting from December 25 to January 5, the 12 days of Christmas mark the time between the birth of Christ and the coming of the three wise men.
Christmas decorations are an integral part of the festive season, but there’s long been debate on when is too early to deck the halls
The 12 days of Christmas mark the time between the birth of Christ and the coming of the three wise men (depicted here in ‘The Magi visiting child Jesus’ by Dutch painter Dieric Bouts (15th century)
That’s why January 5 is considered the last day to take down your decorations, although many consider Christmas to be done and dusted well before then.
Although the increased focus on gifts has put December 25 at the forefront of the Christian festival, many still see the subsequent days as a sacred period too.
Food writer Nigel Slater once said: ‘I hear people describing the days following Christmas Day as ‘flat’. I am of another mind.
‘They are peaceful days, gentle days that are as much a part of Christmas as those leading up to Christmas Eve.’
Professor Helen Parish, a historian at the University of Reading, has said ‘it wouldn’t be Christmas’ without disagreements over when exactly we should be celebrating.
The common Christian traditional calendar date of Christ’s birth – December 25 – was a date asserted officially by Pope Julius I in AD 350.
‘There is no indication in the Bible of the date on which Christ was born, and no consensus in early Christianity,’ Professor Parish wrote for The Conversation.
‘By the second century, it had become customary in the eastern churches to celebrate the baptism of Christ on January 6.’
The secret history behind YOUR Christmas tree
The modern Christmas tree originated in Germany, where families set up a paradise tree in their homes on December 24, the religious feast day of Adam and Eve, since at least the 16th century.
They hung wafers on it, symbolizing the Eucharistic host, the Christian sign of redemption, but it wasn’t a few hundred years later that it became a global phenomenon.
On Christmas Day 1800, Queen Victoria’s grandmother, Queen Charlotte, consort of George III, invited children of local noble families to a party at Windsor Castle.
In the middle of the room stood ‘an immense tub with a yew-tree placed in it, from the branches of which hung bunches of sweetmeats, almonds, and raisins, in papers, fruits and toys, most tastefully arranged, and the whole illuminated by small wax candles.’
But the Christmas tree really became popular in England in 1841 when Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, brought one over from Germany and put it in Windsor Castle.
In 1848, a drawing of the ‘Queen’s Christmas tree at Windsor Castle’ featuring the royal family around their tree was published in the Illustrated London News.
Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their children gather around a Christmas tree, December 1848
The scene proved hugely popular and led to newspapers documenting the royal tree each year, and the trend caught on amongst the general public in England.
By the 1870s, Christmas trees had become popular in the United States, which can take claim for the addition of electric Christmas lights (prior to this candles were used but created more of a fire hazard).
Pennsylvania-born inventor Edward Hibberd Johnson – a friend of Thomas Edison – put the very first string of electric Christmas tree lights together in 1882, three years after Edison made a long-lasting incandescent lightbulb.
Johnson put on a display of 80 red, white and blue bulbs outside his parlor at 136 East 36th Street in New York City.
The tradition caught on and the presentation increased to 120 bulbs in brass sockets over the next two years.
It went countrywide after in 1894 when President Grover Cleveland put electric lights on the White House tree.
