Do you live in the presents?
A psychologist says that when you choose to deck the halls this holiday season says a lot about your personality.
Carmen Harra, author of “Committed: Finding Love and Loyalty Through the Seven Archetypes,” claims that whether you put your decorations up before November, in early December or if you leave it for the last minute says a lot about you as a person.
If you hang decorations before November, you might have trouble “living in the moment” — but it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
“If you’re one of the few people who has had their lights in place since October, then you like to be the first to do things,” Harra told the Daily Mail. “You enjoy planning and executing well ahead of schedule. You also correctly anticipate the holiday rush and wish to avoid it.”
Harra believes these organizational skills have real-world benefits because you are “one step ahead of everyone else.”
However, she warns people not to confuse these positive attributes with simply wanting to “get things out of the way.”
“There is a time and place for everything, and wanting to get things done ahead of their proper time subtracts from the joy of living in the moment and feeling anticipation for each season as it approaches.”
But people who put their lights up before November aren’t the only ones considered early birds.
Starting to decorate in November or early December still makes you ahead of the game, and shows “you like to get things done before or on schedule.”
“Decorating in November shows that you genuinely look forward to the holidays because you have plenty of time to add to or change your decorations before the big day,” the expert said.
“There is a sense of optimism associated with those who decorate a month early: they dream about their plans coming to fruition and swell with emotion at the thought of stepping back and admiring their hard work, and this holds true on a broader spectrum than Christmas.”
Those who light up their homes in early December are “more realistic in nature” and like to do things the “correct and proper” way.
The psychologist said that putting off decorating until the week — or even the day — before Christmas signals procrastination and tardiness.
“This personality type is likely to be less optimistic than those who put up their decorations in time,” Harra said.
Harra claims that these types of people “prefer to see Christmas come and go” — possibly because it doesn’t have the same happy feeling as it used to when they were kids — but they still put in an effort to keep the decorating tradition going.
People who chose not to decorate at all “don’t regard the season as worth the effort,” Harra said.
The non-decorators feel a low amount of excitement toward the holiday season, and would rather ignore the festivities.
“This action is associated with more pronounced pessimism,” she explained. “This personality type would like to avoid the holidays altogether, possibly because they can’t spend those special days with their loved ones or a traumatic event occurred in the past around this time of the year.”
According to a survey of almost 4,000 homeowners in the US, most people believe Dec. 1 is the day when it’s appropriate to hang Christmas lights.
Just 18% of those surveyed said it’s acceptable to decorate before Thanksgiving, and 4% said they leave their Christmas lights up year-round.
