If people pleasing were a Christmas gift, it would come wrapped in a colossal bow: The obligatory hosting, tightly scheduled toasting and frenzied splurging can inflate the pressure to please to grand proportions. By the time New Year rolls around, even the sturdiest naysayers can feel as frazzled as last year’s tinsel spilling from the hastily packed bauble box.
“I think everyone will fall victim to people pleasing at Christmas to some degree,” says Dr Alissa Knight, clinical psychologist and director of The Calming Suite Psychology clinic.
“There is a sense of having to conform to societal expectations as a way to maintain the status quo and not feel marginalised.” But for those who are prone to people pleasing at any time of year, the expectation to deliver at Christmas cuts much deeper.
“The notion of having to be around
