What's the best way to dump someone? There's no right answer — but there are definitely some things you should avoid. And when it comes to timing, a new poll from AskMen, a site dedicated to helping men improve their lives, asked 668 people what the best holiday to dump someone would be. Out of all of the holidays, there was a clear winner. Sorry turkey day, but you're the most popular holiday for dumping. So if you made it through your Thanksgiving dinner without being broken up with, you're doing well.
In a way, that's not surprrising. Thanksgiving kicks off a long holiday season — and a lot of people seem to want to get a breakup over with before the other holidays roll around. "Fall cues the beginning of the holidays," Dr. Michele Kerulis of Counseling@Northwestern, Northwestern University’s online masters in counseling program, tells Bustle. "The first glimpse of the holiday season appears in October with Halloween and concludes somewhere between New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day. This can be a really fun time for new couples or it can be extremely awkward."
This time of year can really bring out any stress in the relationship because there are often a lot of obligations. You can see why, if a relationship wasn't going well, Thanksgiving might be the best opportunity to get out before Christmas, New Year's, and, of course, Valentine's Day. "The holiday season is packed with pressure to attend parties thrown by friends, family, and employers," Dr. Kerulis says. "This, paired with advertisements encouraging couples to purchase extravagant gifts for each other, can be enough for some couples to call it quits. When one person is not as into the relationship as the other, Thanksgiving seems like the ideal time to call it quits."
But though Thanksgiving was the winner, not everyone was agreed on the best holiday to dump someone. Here's what AskMen found.
1
Thanksgiving: 46%
Thanksgiving won by a long shot. Nearly half of people thought this was the right holiday to get a breakup out of the way. It's at the beginning of the holiday season, it doesn't have any romantic connotations, and you're often with your family for support — so there are a lot of factors that soften the blow.
2
New Year's Eve: 31%
Really? Really? New Year's Eve got almost a third of the votes, which I was surprised by. I mean, it's a holiday that revolves around a midnight kiss. And you would usually be at a party with your friends. To me, it seems like the stakes are really high in terms of embarrassment, but maybe it gives them a chance to start a new year off fresh.
3
Valentine's Day: 15%
A Valentine's day breakup does sound pretty brutal, which is probably why only 15 percent opted for it as the best choice. I guess that you can just have a quiet conversation at home about it and avoid a spectacle, but you also run the risk of ruining Valentine's Day for life. Being dumped on Valentine's Day is not a good memory to have stored away.
4
Their Birthday: 5%
I would have thought that their birthday would get zero votes, because how could dumping someone on their birthday be better than dumping them on Thanksgiving!? But it turns out, 5 percent of people disagree with me. Yay for a lifetime of traumatic birthdays to come after that. Also, do you still get that person a present when you dump them? All of it just seems weird.
5
Christmas: Less Than 1 Percent
Christmas was the least popular day to dump someone, with less than one percent of people thinking that it was the right holiday to split up. And you can see why — it's a holiday that so many people get excited about and you'd probably feel really, really guilty doing it. Plus, you'd almost definitely be stuck with coal in your stocking next year.
So it's easy to see why Thanksgiving was the popular dumping holiday. But also... maybe just don't dump people on holidays, am I right? I mean, there are a whole lot of days that aren't holidays. But then again, breakups aren't always that rational. "Sometimes breakups kind of bubble up on you -— maybe you haven't been happy for a while, but you're not quite in breakup mode, and then a certain fight just pushes you right over the edge," Alex Manley, AskMen Dating Editor, tells Bustle. "In those cases, you can't necessarily predict where things will go, but if you're at the point where you're actively planning a breakup — don't do it on (or right around) a holiday." And we can all definitely agree on that.
