Christmas and Mental Health – What Does the Evidence Tell Us?

IS THE CHRISTMAS PERIOD ASSOCIATED WITH HIGHER SUICIDES?

Interestingly, this is not at all true. Bozsonyi’s 2005 study of 140,000 suicides found fewer male suicides occurring during the Christmas holidays. [1]

Sansone in 2011 found that multiple studies found the evidence for almost everything associated with poor mental health seemed to drop over the Christmas period. There is less self-harm, fewer presentations to mental health services, and fewer emergency presentations.

Clinicians, in both psychiatry and primary care settings, might anticipate an overall decrease in psychopathology-related phenomena immediately before the Christmas holiday. However, there is likely to be a corresponding increase in psychopathology immediately following the Christmas holiday. Thus, it appears that Christmas exhibits a generally protective effect with regard to many forms of psychopathology, with the exceptions being mood disorders and alcohol-related poisonings. [2]

Data on 73,591 general population and 19,318 patient suicide deaths in England between 1997 and 2012 showed that suicide risk was significantly lower during Christmas, particularly for women. There was a peak in suicide on New Year’s Day in the general population.  (So watch out for each other after the holidays.) [3]

So there is less of the worst of human experience over the Christmas break. That doesn’t entirely attribute it to being “wonderful”.

We still have to put up with gaudy Christmas decorations, endless department store tinsel, and grossly climate-inappropriate decor where we have to pretend that this is still a winter festival.

CHRISTMAS AND HAPPINESS

Again, psychiatry seems to spoil this idea (as it does most things.) In 2017, Psychoanalyst McKeown noted that people who put up their decorations earlier appeared to be happier. [4]

There was a correlating study in the Journal of Environmental Psychology that found that decorations were social cues, communicating homeowner’s sociability, and therefore contributing to improved social cohesiveness. [5]

THE LEGEND OF SANTA CLAUS

So, it seems Christmas brings people together, and makes them safer. However, it is still about buying presents for children – about long-maintained childhood myth and parental subterfuge.

The legend of Santa Claus itself does have a number of mental health clinicians bemoaning the issue of, essentially, systematised lying.

While individual experts can be found to promote any perspective; the evidence is surprisingly positive. Anderson and Prentice, psychologists at the University of Texas at Austin, interviewed 52 children who no longer believed in Santa Claus, as well as their parents.

They found, perhaps unsurprisingly, that children generally discovered the truth on their own – at about age seven. What was significant was that the children generally reported that finding out the truth was a positive experience – 71% found the experience “surprising”, 62% “happy”. It was the parents who were sad, generally at the perception of the children’s loss of innocence. [6]

The legend of Santa Claus, who gives gifts to those who are good, is linked to a powerful underlying concept in humanity, that of fundamental justice.

The Max Planck Institute in Germany found that children as young as age 3 had an instinctive sense of justice. [7]

That something so complex can be experienced in one so young gives some idea as to the universality of the Christmas experience.

CHRISTMAS IS A WONDERFUL TIME - RELEVANCE TO PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Now, Christmas does not appear to be just about static experience. Popular media regarding Christmas keeps getting drawn to the concept of transformation – A Christmas Carol, It’s a Wonderful Life, the Grinch – the trope of generosity and children keeps resurfacing.

When objectively looked at, it does not appear to make much sense that an annual festival as anything to do with personal development. We keep teaching children that Christmas is about giving, and how important generosity is. But why?

There is one last piece of evidence that is relevant here. Harvard University’s Study of Human Development, which has charted the lives of 724 individuals for more than 60 years. Using the outcome measure of “happiness”, the study looked at life choices and directions of the study participants, to determine what led to positives for personality development, and ultimately maximal happiness. [8]

The study’s former director, Professor George Vaillant, identified a new milestone for late-life development – what he termed Keeper of the Meaning, which was “conservation and preservation of the collective products of mankind”.

This translates to the older person finding an identity by means of maintaining and disseminating wisdom. That is, any activity involving support for and development of the next generation – whether it was grandparenting, or teaching, or mentorship, or simply being there.

So, Christmas is a wonderful time. It is about family, friends, decorations, generosity, innocence, growth, and togetherness. It brings the best out of people and inspires us to be better than we are.

And if you don’t believe me, I’ll repeat all the evidence again.