October is here, so it's time to put up the Christmas decorations - according to psychologists, who say starting early will make us happy. Despite events such as Halloween and Bonfire Night still being on the horizon, shops are already packed with festive food, gifts and decorations.
And experts say it is time we did the same. Psychoanalyst Steve McKeown said: "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.
Talking to Unilad, he added: "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!"
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."
Dermot and Gary Bradley Moore have already put up their decorations because in 2021 they were one of the last on their street.
Gary told MyDerry: "We simply put the tree up so early this year, why not. We are just back from Turkey and I said to Dermot right come on, we were last to do it last year as we were moving house, I want to be one of the first again.
"Basically, it just makes us and most people happy as you can see from our social media sites. Christmas is our favourite time of the year.
"If we could have our tree up all year round we would. We would go without essentials just to buy a new Santa, when the new Range [store] opened we ran straight through the doors and half the people knew us. We must of grabbed about ten Santas."
Mum of four Heidi took to Instagram at the start of September to share her house transformed into Santa’s grotto. Heidi said: “I wanted to decorate my home early as making my children and other people smile when they see the lights makes me think what is there not to love about getting into the Christmas spirit early on.
"Especially after the pandemic, I think it made us all realise there is truly no time like the present so why not? For now, I’m planning to only turn on the lights occasionally such as when we have friends over to ensure I’m not wasting energy and to keep costs to a minimum.”
Nilufar Ahmed Lecturer in Social Sciences, University of Bristol, told The Conversation: "The popular adage that the best part of going out is getting ready – that the journey is more important than the destination – recognises that rituals are important in their own right. Routines and rituals offer structure and predictability in our lives and perform important psychological functions to manage anxiety. With rates of anxiety soaring in lockdown, anything we can do to manage our mental health is to be welcomed."
She said many people put up decorations early in 2020 adding: "There’s evidence that this will work, as research shows that Christmas rituals specifically can play a role in creating a sense of wellbeing and satisfaction. They evoke memories of other times in our lives when we have gone through the same rituals. Every time we put up Christmas decorations, our brain fires up our stored up festive feelings."
