A survey showed that 20 per cent or 1 in 5 of young Australians favor a cancellation of the annual Christmas celebration. The young people cited the yearend holiday season as the reason behind their increased depression, loneliness and family tension.

The study had 500 respondents as part of a national youth mental heal survey.

Instead of being happy as many people are during the Christmas holidays, 20 per cent of the survey participants said they feel worse. About 60 per cent of them explained the gloomy yearend feeling to higher tension between family members, while more than half reported financial pressures because of higher spending during the holidays.

"Christmas is a time for giving and receiving presents, but parents should also take the opportunity to exchange the gift of meaningful conversation with their child and how they are coping," The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Chris Tanti, chief executive officer of Headspace which conducted the survey.

Blogger Dobbie Maxwell made the same call.

" Can't we find a way to cancel Christmas for one year? The world will still spin, and I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels this way. They canceled the World Series in 1994, and we lived through that. I doubt if one person complained in any of the other six continents, and I didn't hear a whole lot of bitching from Canada or Mexico here. Life will continue," Mr Maxwell wrote.

He reasoned that if restaurants before can have smoking and non-smoking section, people should have the freedom to observe or not the Yuletide holidays.

"To many of us, it's NOT the 'most wonderful time of the year'. It brings back memories of things we don't want to think about, but can't help it because we're reminded of it on a nonstop basis," Mr Maxwell added.

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