Tis the season not just for Christmas, but for the end of relationships.
As reported by the New York Post, breakups surge on December 11, so much so that it has been unofficially anointed Breakup Day around the world.
The date was determined by Information Is Beautiful designers, who analysed Facebook status updates from 2008. While most people haven’t changed their relationship status on Facebook since 2010, experts and more recent data confirm the weeks leading up to Christmas is when relationship meltdowns heat up.
“The holidays can bring up a lot of emotions and challenges for new couples,” dating expert and host of The Dateable Podcast, Yue Xu, told The Post on Thursday.
Three-quarters of online daters have had a relationship end during the holiday season, according to a Flirtini dating app survey shared with The Post.
“We tend to use Christmas and the promise of a fresh start in the new year as a time to reflect, so it is not surprising that there is a spike in breakups around this time,” Australian psycho-sexologist, Chantelle Otten, told Pedestrian.tv this week.
“For anyone not 100 per cent happy in their relationship, it can force them to address feelings of discontent and make a decision on whether they want to stay and work on it, or officially split up.”
Respondents to the 2022 Flirtini survey blamed the pressure to invite people they’re dating to holiday gatherings (50.6 per cent), feeling rushed to commit (45.9 per cent) and anxiety about gift-giving (40.4 per cent) as the top relationship stressors of the stereotypically jolly season.
Some 33 per cent of people said they were happy to continue dating someone over the holiday, but only because they didn’t want to be alone.
Dating coach Rikki Dymond, meanwhile, said family time and finances, especially around gift-giving, add pressure to the holiday season.
“My best advice is to talk about financial expectations/limitations and come up with a reasonable budget together. Also provide each other with ideas of gifts or things you would love as gifts. This not only helps making sure you’re on the same page with spending, but you have an idea of what to get each other, which takes a lot of pressure off,” Dymond told The Post.
“The other big conversation to have are your wants/needs around spending time with the family/extended family. Whose family you will visit and for how long, what’s reasonable and what’s a fair compromise.”
For her part, Xu said one way to ensure your relationship lasts the holiday is to have a frank talk with your partner about emotions that may arise at this time of year.
“Be honest with the person you’re seeing – have real conversations about what this time of the year brings up for you and how it may impact your relationship,” she advised.
“This kind of real talk will only bring you closer.”
This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission