Festive film schmaltz is just what the doctor ordered
Christmas films are a whole genre in themselves. They tend to be saccharine, cheesy, entirely predictable and a world away from cutting edge cinema – but what is it about them that makes us want more every year?
Believe it or not, but there’s a scientific reason why we welcome schmaltzy films the second December hits: “There’s a hormone called oxytocin, which is produced when we want to bond emotionally with each other,” explains Noel McDermott, CEO and psychotherapist (noelmcdermott.net).
“During Christmas – when we’re meeting people we love that we haven’t seen in ages – oxytocin levels go through the roof, particularly because it’s produced mostly in safe, loving relationships with people we’re non-sexual with.”
Oxytocin is produced through “eye contact and physical contact”, he says, and over Christmas, many of us see family and friends who we have “very fond, strong, bonded emotional relationships to”.
This isn’t the only positive hormone stimulated over the festive period. “We’re also getting a lot of reward hormones for being pro-social,” Noel says.
“Being pro-social is any activity we’re involved in that bonds us in some way to other human beings. So any sort of social event which isn’t a bunch of strangers and large events – but those small, familytype events, which could be with colleagues at work, it could be with school friends, it could be with actual family.
“When we do those types of activities, where we have pleasant emotional responses with other human beings, we get a whole bunch of reward chemicals in us – which spur us on to want to do more.”
So how do all these pleasurable hormones link to cheese-tastic Christmas films? The more we experience positive reward hormones and oxytocin, the more we want – and Noel says: “At this time of year, because we’re specifically focused on pro-social activities, these films make a lot more sense because they produce similar types of hormonal responses in us.
“So we feel ‘loved up’ when we’re watching them, but we’re feeling ‘loved up’ anyway. It’s a perfect match and combination.”
It’s such a good fit, we’re even willing to overlook the fact most festive movies are not exactly top-tier cinema.
Noel adds: “The faults in these films – that they don’t have great characters, they’re not deep stories, they don’t have complex plots – are immaterial” and that’s because they make us feel “close to other people”. There’s comfort in predictability... We gravitate towards Christmas films every year because, “We’re creatures of habit,” admits Noel.
It’s something of a ritual for many of us – either re-watching the old classics, or seeking comfort in a new movie’s unsurprising plot.
Noel says comfort, predictability and structure are “absolutely essential for psychological security and stability”.
He continues: “The predictability of these films – we know exactly what’s going to happen – means we can relax, not be anxious, know exactly what’s going on, and just really enjoy it.”
And after a tricky year of yet more Covid-related lockdowns, anxiousness over the world reopening and concerns over new variants – safe predictability might be exactly what we need right now.