A Very Special Christmas Gift

"We found that, around Christmas, people are generally happier and they're also less anxious and more calm."
"Every time you see these moods arise you see an increase in sex searches on Google."
"I think we conclusively show it's not a biological adaptation to the solar cycle because even with Australia and Brazil we see the same holiday effect and they're in opposite phases at any given time. So it can't be a biological adaptation to fewer  hours of sunlight."
"This shows how data from social media can actually disprove a hypothesis that was the most well established one in biology."
"Now we just need to find out what the social triggers are that increase biological reproduction around these times."
"I suspect it's because Christmas is very family-centered and specifically child-centered in terms of gift-giving and the story of baby Jesus. Christmas also marks the end of a cycle because it's at the end of the year, so maybe this just makes people feel more calm."
Dr. Luis Rocha, professor of informatics, Indiana University

And here we thought that Christmas spurs feelings of nostalgia, of loving families affirming their faith in Christianity and the wonders of the birth of a baby who grew to be a man of immense philosophical wisdom to set out to teach the world that people have an obligation to one another, that their creator had invested them with the capacity to overcome their base instincts and emotions for the greater good of peace and equality and that to prove just how imperative it is, the creator was prepared to sacrifice his earthly son to emphasize that message and empower believers to achieve the goal that humanness imposed upon them.

So, apart from the ecstatic delight of children at the colourful blinking lights on evergreens growing from a pot on their living room floor, and all the wonderful gifts that a mischievous old elf clambered down their home chimneys to carefully array under that green, glowing tree, there is a special gift for adults, as well, beyond the amusement and pleasure afforded parents in witnessing their adorable children enjoy that cherished tradition.

Getty Images

Indeed, the holiday celebration of the birth of Christ represents a religious festival of immense importance to worshippers of Christ, the  holiday arriving at the bleakest of seasons in the northern hemisphere, when daylight hours are short and cold plagues comfort in every conceivable way. A time when family, near and extended, make a special effort to come together to renew familial bonds for the emotional comfort of reliving their commitment to one another and to the religion that provides them with the spiritual assurance they crave.

Now comes the result of new research, recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, concluding that during the Christmas season of bright good cheer, peoples' interest in sex reaches a crescendo. Data was analyzed from 130 countries with the use of Google Trends by researchers searching out sex-related terms through the space of a year, to discover a huge spike occurs when people Google sex terms just around the Christmas season.

That !Aha! moment that led to the further conclusion that this spike in sex interest nine month afterward resulted in a boom of September babies. Curiosity about the phenomenon spurred researchers to make use of Twitter to perform a "sentimental analysis" searching for words associated with emotion such as "love" and "thankful". What exactly might it be that during the Christmas season elevated peoples' amorous instincts?

There was an already existing hypothesis that held an abundance of September births was readily explained by examining biological factors not cultural ones, with the biology hypothesis leaning toward the human reproductive cycle, based on Earth's orbit, making it likelier to conceive around the winter solstice. This theory collapses somewhat when bringing in those living in the southern hemisphere when the winter solstice occurs in June. Only at Christmas time does sex-Googling spike.

The researchers didn't stop there. They forged on to discover that sex interest peaked as well during Eid al-Fitre which marks the end of the Islamic holiday of Ramadan. And while Eid al-Fitre is a movable celebration, not occurring on the same date yearly, sex interest nonetheless shifted, according to the holiday's presentation date. Furthermore, the pattern of these specific religious holidays eliciting in people an urge to procreate had no counterpart in other holidays.

Other holidays have much in common in a celebratory, cultural way with Christmas, resulting in family gatherings, time off work, special food, yet it is Christmas and Christmas only that inspires people to yearn for sex.

It turns out people are more interested in sex around the holidays, which could explain why most babies are born in August and September. Getty Images

"We didn't see a reversal in birth rate or online interest in sex trends between the Northern and Southern hemispheres -- and it didn't seem to matter how far people lived from the equator."
"Rather, the study found culture -- measured through online mood -- to be the primary driver behind cyclic sexual and reproductive behavior in human populations."
Dr. Luis M. Rocha, study co-author