When December rolls around… heck who am I kidding? When November rolls around all I can think about is Christmas! This year my holiday fever is running higher than ever. At night I have dreams of sugar plum fairies, and twinkling Christmas lights. This year while watching my favorite holiday movies, I’ve felt more sentimental than ever. I’m not typically a touchy-feely person, so when I started getting teary eyed during Santa Claus is Coming to Town (the 1970 edition, because really is there anything better?), I knew something was wrong. There has to be a real reason I’m getting so sentimental… right? I decided to take it upon myself to see if there was a scientific reason behind my emotions or if it was just mother nature that was making me extra emotional this holiday season.

Around the Holidays it’s common to have feelings of Nostalgia. However, let me clarify what I mean by nostalgia. There are two types of nostalgia, historical and personal. Historical nostalgia is yearning for an earlier time such as the Victorian ages, weird- I know. The more common form is personal nostalgia. Personal nostalgia is when we long for, or miss our own past experiences, pretty self-explanatory.

(OK-so at this point I’ve self diagnosed my self with holiday personal nostalgia syndrome…)

During my research I stumbled upon an interview with nostalgia expert, Krystine Batcho, a professor of psychology at Le Moyne College in New York. She said, “Right now, the consensus appears to be that the peak years for nostalgia might actually be early adulthood.” Hmm, so I was starting to feel better; I’m at the age nostalgia effects most prominently. But still, there had to be other reasons… So I continued my search.

I came across a Huffington Post article that stated, “People experience emotions from the past more strongly than emotions from the present, and so that makes the past seem more intense than the present.” So while in actuality my upcoming holiday may be the best one yet, in comparison to my memories of previous holidays this years’ holiday will still seem subpar. It was starting to make sense, I viewed my past more favorable than the present- that’s why I was feeling particularly nostalgic this season.

But why was I misty eyed while watching Christmas movies?

Through further research I found a direct correlation between nostalgia and relationships. As a functioning member of society, humans ground themselves in their relationships. It helps us identify our sense of belonging. Nostalgia helps humans maintain those relationships and sense of belonging. Because the holidays, and even more so holiday movies, are centered around relationships Nostalgia is at its peak during December.

Krystine Batcho says that, “Holidays bring cultural beliefs and even myths, whether it is reindeer and Santa Claus or whatever. And it makes people feel they are connected to a past and to other people across time, across cultural barriers, it is a uniting phenomenon, a unifying phenomenon.” These characters have an ability to connect us to our past, consequently we immediately become nostalgic. The film industry commercializes these mystical characters, because they know we have an emotional connection to them. So ultimately, we are being manipulated, through no fault of our own, to become sentimental while watching Christmas movies.

So next time you find a tear rolling down your cheek while watching Frosty the Snowman, don’t fret it. It’s just the film industry taking advantage of humans’ innate desire for relationships and sense of being.

Happy Holidays!