The Psychological Benefits Of Christmas Traditions

Many people look forward to Christmas traditions throughout the year. Christmas is not the same if you have to do without your favorite food or if you do not get home to open the presents. This holiday loses its meaning if you are not given the opportunity to perform your traditions.

Christmas is a gift for the senses. The lights, the decorated streets, the colored gift wrap. The taste of food and the aroma of mulled wine and other traditional drinks is a delight for young and old.

Above all, Christmas is a time to be with family. In these valuable days, we have the opportunity to be with those we love and get away from our routines.

Escape from anxiety

For many of us, the daily drumming is stressful. Our daily lives are so exhausting and tiring that chronic fatigue can develop over time. Not only that, but there is so much uncertainty in life. That uncertainty tends to fuel our negative thoughts.

That is why so many people need a holiday like Christmas. We need a special day each year that can take us back to childhood and allow us to remember what we have lost and spend time with those who live far away. It’s a time for gifts and opening our arms to those we love.

Christmas traditions (a bit like saying what we are grateful for or giving a speech) are based on rituals. Laboratory experiments and field studies show that the structured and repetitive actions of these rituals can act as a kind of lightning conductor for anxiety by making the world a more predictable place.

We perform many of these rituals other times during the year of course. But at Christmas time, they get a deeper meaning. We celebrate them in a special place (family home) with a special group of people (our family and close friends.)

This is why more people travel at Christmas and New Year than at other times of the year. Seeing people you don’t normally see helps you forget your worries. These collections allow you to remember the old family traditions.

Traditional food as one of the traditions of Christmas

No Christmas is complete without the familiar Christmas dishes. Many hours in the kitchen preparing delicious dishes are rewarded with long meals with the family, where one enjoys conversations and laughter. Special occasions require special food.

Sharing a meal is a symbol of closeness. It makes the whole family sit around the table and creates space for conversation and presence. Many studies show that doing some sort of ritual together before eating improves the experience of the meal and even makes the food taste better.

Other studies show that if children participate in the preparation of the food, they will also enjoy it to a greater extent. Not only that, but the longer a dish takes to make, the more we value it afterwards. You could say that the effort associated with a particular meal enhances the culinary experience.

Traditional gifts

One of the traditions of Christmas is to give and receive gifts. From a rational point of view, exchanging gifts makes no sense. When you exchange gifts with one, you are basically exchanging money. If you look at it solely from a monetary point of view, it is a form of zero growth.

If you feel that way, it is better that you buy your own gift. But giving gifts is not always about how much you spend. Gifts help to form social bonds because they force us to think of someone else, even if only for a short time.

Maybe you are just circulating the money, but the satisfaction that comes from giving and receiving gifts also allows you to enjoy the ritual. Besides that, it is money that most people have saved together for a long time that they spend on Christmas gifts. A lot of people prefer to wait until Christmas to pamper themselves and others.

Family and Christmas traditions

The absolute most important function at Christmas is to preserve and strengthen the family bond. For people who live far away, Christmas rituals are the glue that can hold a family together.

Children in particular tend to develop stronger bonds with their family if they participate in Christmas traditions. Not only that, but the fond memories of family traditions are synonymous with some positive company with your children.

In conclusion, we can state that rituals and traditions are indicators of identity and belonging to a group. This is why the Christmas season makes people feel as if they are part of something bigger and gets them in a good mood.