Commentary: Why Christmas seems to come earlier each year

Liverpool: remember you childhoodDecember was the longest month. It might have been filled with rehearsing for the school’s nativity performance, building your wish list, and enjoying your morning meal. advent calendar chocolateBut there were times when it felt like Santa wasn’t coming.

As an adult, it’s a different experience. Summer holidays, barbecues, tans in an instant, and mince pies, tinsel, and turkey in an instant. Is it just me or does Christmas come sooner?

If you can’t believe the festive season is already approaching, you’re not alone. My colleague and I recently conducted a survey of 918 adults in the UK and found that 77% of the respondents agreed that Christmas seems to come earlier each year. rice field.

One reason for this is that the way we experience the passage of time changes as we age, and time often feels faster as we get older.

For a 7-year-old, the 12 months between Christmas are a big part of his life. At 45, 12 months of the same her is a small part of the experience. This ratio difference compresses the relative time between Christmas each year.

Because duration estimation relies on memory, our experience of time also changes. When judging how long something lasted, I base my estimates on how many memories I made during the period of interest. I’m trying to remember things like movie length, car trips, relationships Even then, the number of memories encoded in the movie is a measure of length.