The pressure is all the usual stuff some people struggle more than others over, like money and difficult families, but they are magnified in this narrow window of time. It may be why Thanksgiving is the source of so many angry, depressing movies.
By Christmas, people wanting someone likely found them. But they may be fooling themselves. And biology might be in play.
Image: Storyblocks. Christmas tree added by Grok
in Of Momshells And Snowmanning: How Holidays Change Popular Language, I wrote about how language gets shaped around things that evolve in culture, but science can't be completely eliminated from seasonal bad decisions. You may have lower self-esteem issues due to actual weight gain, for example. Binge-ing on Christmas or Thanksgiving is fine, most of the 6,000 calories you might consume on those days are going to be excreted, but 92 days of higher eating from October through December may be why, by this time of year, some people don't feel great about their bodies.
Lower self-esteem and self-inflicted desperation may make people more inclined to seek validation. Which might mean rushing into sex. Like pizza, even bad sex is still pretty good sex, but pizza won't make you feel worse the way hooking back up with an ex- or avoiding the issues with your new squeeze can. If you are less interested in sex, or your partner is, that might not be a critical issue either.
Holidays don't cause problems, they just bring them to light. But like holidays, seasonal issues pass.
If you read all that and still simple think your holidate is on your nerves, don't fret too much. The first Monday after New Year's - the biggest break-up day of the year - is not that far away.
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