Porn searches are seasonal. According to Pornhub, the content that people look for seems to vary significantly over the course of the year in relation to different holidays and events. For example, around Halloween, searches for spooky porn tend to rise. Likewise, around Valentine’s Day, searches for love and romance start trending. Needless to say, with Christmas upon us, searches for jolly porn are spiking.

While there are a lot of different types of Christmas porn out there, one of the most popular is Santa Claus-themed pornography. In fact, if you search for old Saint Nick on Pornhub, you’ll actually end up with more than 1,000 hits! So why is Santa such a popular sex symbol at this time of year?

I explored the psychology behind the sexy Santa phenomenon in a recent article over at VICE. As I discuss in that article, part of the appeal is likely the transgressive nature of it. Christmas is a pretty wholesome holiday and—for many—it’s a major religious celebration, too. As a result, sexualizing one of the biggest symbols of Christmas is taboo. We know that doing taboo things is a very popular turn-on—doing something (or someone) we’re not “supposed” to do tends to make it hotter.

Another factor that likely makes Santa appealing is that he is kind of a “daddy” figure. He’s on the older side, has a great beard, and he has a lot of power, too. After all, he gets to decide who’s been naughty and who’s been nice—and he gets to reward and punish people accordingly. When you think about it that way, Santa is a character tailor-made for role playing in BDSM scenes.

Of course, on top of all of this, Santa says and does a lot of things that sound a little dirty, from asking people to sit on his lap to spying on them both while they’re sleeping and while they’re awake. In other words, it’s not that hard to turn a story about Santa into something that sounds sexual.

To learn more about the psychology of Santa porn, check out the full article over at VICE.

Happy Holidays!

Want to learn more about Sex and Psychology? Click here for previous articles or follow the blog on Facebook (facebook.com/psychologyofsex), Twitter (@JustinLehmiller), or Reddit (reddit.com/r/psychologyofsex) to receive updates. You can also follow Dr. Lehmiller on YouTube and Instagram.

Image Credits: Photo by hue12 photography on Unsplash

Check out these other interviews with authors: