This year has undoubtedly been challenging in many ways. We thank you for your continued support throughout this unprecedented year.
We wish you a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year!
Please enjoy this collection of past holiday blogs for your reading enjoyment.
In a fascinating study from 2002, a pair of researchers asked over a hundred people about their stress and happiness during the holidays, including questions about consumption behavior.
They found that family-based or religious celebrations tended to result in the greatest levels of happiness, as opposed to materialist consumption practices.
Staying Jolly for the Holidays
The Christmas season is certainly a happy time for many people, but it’s often hectic nature can cause a great deal of stress.
Thankfully, there are easy ways to manage this stress without distracting from the necessary shopping, cooking, and family time.
Christmas Rituals and Emotions
Is the holiday complete without traditional family celebrations and holiday rituals? This is exactly what a team of Spanish and Chilean researchers attempted to evaluate in a 2011 study.
Situating their research into a finding that ritual practices are important for personal happiness and family cohesion, Dr. Paez and his team examined what role holiday-specific traditions had on emotional well-being.
Really Experiencing the Holidays
A growing body of research suggests that true happiness comes from a very different sort of gift giving.
Researchers have worked to distinguish between the happiness gained from buying material possessions and that derived from pursuing memorable experiences, arguing that material purchases fail to create the same lasting happiness.