Don't Go Spoiling My Holiday Cheer!

OK - so everyone's a bit down at the moment. Stock markets crashing. Unemployment rising. Politicians getting arrested. So, for me at least, a little escapism in the form of a light-hearted rom-com is an enjoyable way of letting go. Perhaps tuck into The Holiday, Love Actually, Sex and the City or maybe even Mamma Mia!?? Right?

Wrong. According to research from the Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, those who watch rom-coms are more likely to have serious misgivings about love, and more to the point, what to expect from a relationship from the get-go.

Now I know what you're thinking. I thought it too. This, surely, isn't news? People who watch rom-coms have idealised views of relationships, and more to the point, life in general. Big whoop.

What really gets me, however, is that they would release this kind of info a week before Christmas! I mean, is it really necessary to actively prey upon any possible liberation from our yuletide woes by killing any enjoyment we can get from watching people who have it just a little bit better? From the earliest poets and bards and their art and entertainment, we have been creating wonderful fairytales of magical places and impossible events.

Today's rom-coms aren't so much a departure from that. There's no need to spoil my holidays, and my holiday viewing, with such dismal and dastardly news.

So next time someone someone has some big important depressing, disheartening and dreary research, wait until January 6. Let me have my twelve days of christmas at least. After all, it might be the happiest twelve days in the next 365.

Follow Stefan Roberts on Twitter: www.twitter.com/StefanRoberts