We’ve all got our opinions as to why we celebrate Christmas, what we like about the festival and what Christmas means to us – the birth of Jesus, presents, togetherness…
If you like and celebrate December 25, I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s a time when people are generally warmer, kinder and more pleasant to each other. For example, you’re probably more likely to give to a homeless person on Christmas Eve than at any other time of the year or be more generous to strangers – providing you haven’t left your Christmas Shopping to the last minute and you’re now in a frantic hurry!
But, did you know that coffee also plays a part in the tradition of bringing people together too? In the 19th century, roasting coffee beans at Christmas was a traditional family activity that was supposed to bring the whole family together. For many families today, drinking coffee at Christmas is still seen as an important Christmas tradition.
Hot mugs of coffee can also help people to feel more connected according to some psychologists. A study was conducted with hot and iced coffee to determine whether participants would feel warmer and more connected to people when they had a hot cup of coffee in their hands.
Approximately 40 participants took part in the study; they were then shown a series of photographs of people who they had to rate according to how warm they felt each person was.
The results show that the people who were given hot mugs of coffee wrote more positive things about the pictures of people they had to identify, as opposed to the participants who were given iced coffee. Similar experiments show that holding hot objects can make us more generous and trusting towards other people.
So, if things start to get a bit too prickly this Christmas – you know what to do – just make everyone a hot mug coffee and sit by a fire.
