Of course, Christmas is also an incredibly stressful time and sex may be the last thing on your mind as you are frantically digging your last chewed nail into the last roll of sellotape to find the end, and wrap up auntie Nora’s bath set, but hear me out. The news that Christmas has been scientifically proven to make us horny understandably caused quite a stir as we were collectively stockpiling tinsel and turkey, but Christmas has long been associated with sex. However, this new research is the first to link the birth rate peak with religious celebrations, suggesting reproduction rates are cultural, as well as biological. Research has been carried out into what drives our festive frolics, but it was put down to various evolutionary explanations temperature, sunlight, libido, and even the availability of food. Scientists have long known we are enjoying more than a mince pie under the mistletoe and the resulting baby boom in September is well documented. Crucially, the data was collated from 130 countries, across both hemispheres and over a period of ten years, which showed that an increased interest in sex and a rise in birth rates were linked to cultural holidays (such as Christmas in predominantly Christian countries), rather than biological factors. But according to recent research published this month’s ‘Scientific Reports’, you may have been indulging in more than sausage rolls.Īn international research team found that a spike in online sex related searches clustered around Christmas, and that this was followed by an increase in birth rates nine months later. Eating too much, spending too much and requiring the computing grid of the Cern Hadron Super Collider to calculate the number of alcoholic units you’ve consumed are all part and parcel of what makes Christmas, Christmas. If you have overdone it this Christmas, you certainly aren’t alone. New Year’s Eve will soon round off the festivities and ‘Auld Lang Syne’ will wave us across the finish line poorer, fatter and promising to behave ourselves in 2018. The presents have been opened (and possibly returned), the turkey has bowed out as either cold cuts or festive curry, and the only chocolates left rattling around the bottom of the tin are the coffee and strawberry creams.