What if your Christmas shopping turned into a romantic comedy? While you are buying gifts to delight your loved ones, one of your carefully wrapped packages falls. A charming stranger picks up the precious present. Your eyes meet… it’s love at first sight. Then begins a romance, you experience the Advent period like a fairy tale. This person, still unknown a few days earlier, is your soul mate, you are sure of it. But after the end-of-year holidays, the magic fades like an undercooked soufflé. You have experienced what specialists call the “snow-globing” effect.
The magical effect of Christmas on your new romantic relationship
The phenomenon of “snow-globing” consists of forming a couple during the end-of-year holiday period, covering Christmas and New Year’s Day.
The term “snow-globing” comes from the decorative “snow globes” in which our favorite Christmas characters are enclosed and cheerfully shaken by children to make the snow inside flutter.
According to this phenomenon, the magical holiday season brings with it a feeling of nostalgia and a need for comfort. Lonely people then turn to the first person to come and create a relationship that seems perfect to them to compensate for their loneliness.
According to a study carried out by Happn in 2019, 45% of single French people feel pressure to be in a relationship during end-of-year family reunions. Psychiatrist Gary Brown in the columns of Cosmopolitan US explains that “Feeling embarrassed about not being in a relationship can be so painful that some people find romance a solution to not having to feel the pain of loneliness“.
How to recognize and escape the “snow-globing” phenomenon?
How then can we avoid the trap of a relationship that seems perfect and which will ultimately be as artificial as a snow globe? Communication with your new partner is essential, whether verbal or non-verbal. The important thing is to understand what he or she expects from this relationship. You will then be able to see if their expectations are consistent with yours.
As the holidays arrive, you can also watch your loved one’s behavior change. If his attitude changes drastically, this sign can alert you to the true intention behind this relationship. For example, if he or she goes from acting distant to wanting to see you every night during the Christmas period, it might worry you…
Finally, the best way to test your relationship and its “snow-globing” effect could be to take a step back, spend the holidays with your friends and family while staying in touch with your partner and come back to him from January 1st to see if the passion is still there.