While some our favourite festive films may suggest that Christmas is the most romantic time of year (Love Actually, The Holiday, It’s A Wonderful Life, the list goes on), new research proves the contrary.
Dating site E-Harmony have found that the 14th December is the least romantic day of the whole entire year. So much so, they are dubbing the 14th December as Anti-Valentine’s Day.
Their research, based on Google Trend data, social media stats and dating site’s web traffic, concluded that on average, interest in dating will be down 30% on the 14th December.
In fact, 21% of singles reported they go out with fewer people in December than the average month, while 14% said they put dating on hold all together.
E-Harmony highlighted financial pressures and work responsibilities as the main two culprits when it came to the drop in dates. They found 10% of people forgoed dating in order to avoid splashing out on presents, whereas 23% of people said they were too preoccupied with work to find time to date.
However, this year isn't all doom and gloom when it comes to romance, E-Harmony’s research identified New Year’s Eve as the second most romantic day after the year, only trumped by Valentine’s Day itself.