Are you excited for Christmas already? Anticipation of a holiday really does make time fly, study confirms

They say time flies when you’re having fun.

But it also flies when you’re looking forward, according to a new study.

Research has revealed that those who are excited for a holiday are more likely to feel like it comes around quicker.

Researchers from Al-Sadiq University in Iraq surveyed more than 1,000 people living in the UK and 600 people in Iraq, asking if they believed Christmas or Ramadan came more quickly each year.

They also measured participants’ memory function and attention to time passing, as well as age, gender and social life.

Analysis revealed that 70 per cent and 76 per cent of people respectively reported that Christmas or Ramadan seemed to come quicker every year.

They were more likely to report this perceived acceleration if they paid more attention to time, were more forgetful of plans, or reported a love of the holiday.

In the UK, people were also likely to think Christmas came faster if they reported good social lives, the team found.

However, age did not seem to play a role in different perceptions – contradicting the idea that time passes more quickly as we get older.

Writing in the journal Plos One, the researchers said: ‘Human experience of the passage of time is highly flexible and prone to distortions which can make time feel like time is passing more quickly or slowly than normal.

They say time flies when you’re having fun. But it also flies when you’re looking forward, according to a new study (stock image) 

‘Distortions to time can occur over short epochs [periods], for example, a meeting may feel like it flew or dragged depending on its context.

‘However, the widespread use of common adages such as ‘Christmas comes around more quickly each year’ suggests distortions to time are also common for longer epochs.’

They said their findings show the sensation of time passing quickly in terms of big holidays ‘is not limited to a single culture or annual event’.

They explained that boredom and clock watching are both linked to an increased awareness of the passage of time and the feeling of time slowing.

However their results indicate that when aware of the passage of time to a future, enjoyable event, it appears to speed up.