Festive overload Why it's better for stressed parents to do less at Christmas

Advent calendars, check.

- Linda Geddes

Tree and decorations, check. Teachers' presents, nativity costumes and a whole new ticketing system for the PTA's Santa's grotto, check. But the Christmas cards remain unwritten, the to-do list keeps growing, and that Labubu doll your child desperately wants appears to have vanished from the face of the Earth.

If you're feeling frayed in the final days before Christmas, you're not alone. But research suggests this festive overload doesn't just leave parents tired and irritable - it may also make it harder to be emotionally honest with their children.

A longitudinal study tracking nearly 300 UK parents through the Christmas period found that as burnout increased, parents were more likely to suppress how they really felt in subsequent moments, with potential consequences for their own wellbeing and for how children learned about emotions.

Parental burnout is a relatively new concept, describing chronic exhaustion, emotional distancing and loss of fulfilment tied specifically to parenting. It has been linked to depression, relationship conflict and impaired parenting, but most previous studies have relied on one-off surveys, offering only a snapshot of a problem that can fluctuate from day to day.

To better understand how burnout unfolds, Dr Ziwen Teuber at the University of Luxembourg and colleagues recruited 293 UK parents - chosen in part for the country's cultural and socioeconomic diversity - and tracked their experiences in real time across the festive season using brief smartphone surveys sent several times a day.

"We were particularly interested in the Christmas period because it's a time when parenting stress often intensifies," said Teuber. "Routines change, social expectations increase, financial pressure rises and parents often feel responsible for creating enjoyable holiday experiences for their children - amplifying stress, while simultaneously reducing the resources parents usually rely on for recovery."