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Christmas movies make you happy by design


This year I started watching Halloween movies. Lifetime organized a marathon of Merry Christmas series featuring Kelly Rowland (aka my favorite holiday movie after Christmas Song of a Diva with Vanessa L. Williams) and I had to adjust. I used to be a traditionalist—like the “Christmas music/movie just after Thanksgiving” (not the Candace Cameron Bure way), but it’s safe to say the pandemic broke me.

In a year of doom and gloom, a translate three times and more stress than I can handle, I try to find my joy wherever I can, which means this year starting to watch cheesy but enjoyable holiday movies ridiculous and (gasp!) decorate our Christmas decorations before we carve the turkey.

And I’m not the only one. In fact, in my book club, I was the last person to start watching holiday movies. My friend Sierra has been following them since this summer. “I watch them year-round when I need a serotonin boost, but I would say October/November is when I start watching them sequentially,” she says.

Our friend Heather went one step further. She binge-watched Hallmark’s July marathon while making a snowflake quilt “to give it a vibe”. But after that Save time during the day the end, she’s in it to win it. “It was dark, cold,” she said. “Give me some predictable plotlines and gentle appeals.” She might be on to something.

“Holiday movies make us happy for the same reason as watching any other,” says Courtney Cope, licensed family and marriage therapist and senior manager of clinical practice at Any favorite movie makes us happy—its ritual, routine, and familiarity. Better help. “For humans, there is something calming to our nervous system about those elements. Also, we usually watch the same Christmas movie every year, and that brings a sense of order and peace to a world that is often unpredictable.”

There’s also something about knowing that everything will work out in the end.

“When it comes to the fun holiday movies we love to watch, we know they will always play out in the best light and have a happy ending,” explains Cope. “It is a wonderful break from reality for our brains, where we can stop believing and imagine a world where good people always win, families always resolve their differences. They, the protagonists, always find true love and always have enough money for the most magical and extravagant things for a dream Christmas gift or a trip for the whole family!”

The “fear center in our brain”, also known as the amygdala, aims to keep us safe and enjoying reality that pauses for a few hours when we know everything will be fine, especially. especially during a particularly stressful time of the year. according to deal.

“Honestly, Christmas movies are written and designed specifically to make people feel good. Writers and producers are counting on rekindling the secret desires in your heart to find love, to fix someone’s wrong past, to quit a bad job in the city and find a simpler and happier life in the countryside with ‘good people’.” she speaks. “They intentionally put in songs you might have heard as a child and present traditions that remind you of your hometown so that it hits the part of your brain that makes you recall simpler and happier times. . This is known as the ‘nostalgia effect’, which is a cognitive bias that causes us to recall the past as a more positive time than it should be.

For many people, there is a classic condition (also known as the Pavlovian response) that occurs when watching holiday movies as adults causes them to recall the same emotions as watching them as children.

“Because of all these positive things that happen when we watch a Christmas movie, our brains release dopamine, which is associated with pleasure and reward in our brains, when watching,” explains Cope. these movies. “These movies give us what we want: easy solutions to some of life’s toughest problems in a quick timeline—something that can be completely unrealistic. in real life. But we don’t care how cheesy they are, dopamine is working hard to make us feel like we’re having a great time. We’re feeling excited and the reward centers in our brains are getting lit and that’s good enough to keep us entertained and engaged as spectators.”

The nostalgia shown in holiday movies also activates the part of our brain called the limbic system, which is associated with memories and early attachment experiences.

“Our brains feel relaxed and reconnected with the happiest memories while watching these movies – even if we can’t get home for Christmas this year, or even if Grandma doesn’t. Still here to bake Christmas sugar cookies with you. deal said.

Holiday movies can also make us feel more hopeful and inspire us to take positive actions in our own lives, whether it’s calling a loved one without saying anything. you have lost love or reunited with family.

“These hopeful feelings can calm the amygdala, the part of our brain that normally searches for things that make us anxious, while also lighting up the anterior cingulate cortex, the part of the brain that makes us anxious. Our lives are connected with emotional awareness, pain management, and future prediction. results,” Cope shares.

If holiday movies aren’t your thing, but you’d like to experience some of the same nostalgic effects, then Cope recommends contemplating other activities that brought you joy as a child.

She says: “By revisiting the things we used to do and love as children, we can access the parts of our brains that remind us of simpler times and enjoy getting out of the way. responsibilities of adulthood. “People can experience a release of dopamine when they have sex, exercise, take a cold shower, or listen to or listen to music they love. To calm your amygdala, you can talk on the phone with a trusted friend, reading positively affirmationGo for a walk in nature or consider going to therapy to work through any long-standing fears or anxieties with a trained professional.

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