Many Europeans, including Irish people, experience more stress and negative emotions around Christmas time compared to other times of the year, a new study has found.

However, according to the findings, people who are very religious and those with children living at home may be the exception.

German researcher, Michael Mutz of Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, analysed large-scale data from the European Social Survey for 11 historically Christian countries, including Ireland, the UK, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and Estonia.

This survey has been conducted throughout Europe every two years since 2001. It measures the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour patterns of people.

It measured the subjective wellbeing of participants throughout the year by asking them how satisfied they were with their lives and how they would rate their own emotional state. Mr Mutz compared the data relating to the pre and post-Christmas periods - December 16-31 - and other times of the year.

He found that overall, people were much less satisfied with their lives and experienced more negative emotions around Christmas time compared to other times of the year.

He said that this poorer emotional wellbeing during the festive period may be due to Christmas-related stresses, such as buying presents, fulfilling social obligations, financial concerns and a growing material consumer culture.

However Mr Mutz did find that an exception was found among very religious Christians. They tended to feel more positive and content during the Christmas period. People with high levels of education and children still living at home also appeared to be more positive.

He suggested that Christians with a strong sense of religion ‘celebrate Christmas differently than the majority of non-Christians'.

"It can be assumed that these individuals are less prone to becoming absorbed by the consumerism that precedes the holidays. Christian religious affiliation is therefore a protective factor against the general decline of subjective wellbeing around Christmas," he commented.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, Applied Research in Quality of Life.