Abstract
Previous attempts to show that death is sometimes postponed until after an important social occasion have focused on the relationship between birthdates and deathdates. The present research uses Christmas as the focal social event. Study I, which involved the number of obituaries published in a major metropolitan newspaper during the eight weeks centering on Christmas, showed a significant death dip immediately prior to Christmas and a significant death surge immediately thereafter. Study II, which was based on the actual death dates of eminent Americans, yielded the same general pattern of results and also revealed that the post-Christmas upswing was significant only in the case of people who had surpassed the sample's median age. Study II, which involved a day-by-day analysis, showed that the post-holiday increase was very abrupt. All of these findings are fully consistent with Solomon and Corbit's opponent process theory of motivation.
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