December 19, 2025 • 9 mins
Whilst many of us are decking the halls and merrily celebrating, spare a thought for those who suffer from Christougenniatikophobia. Literally translated from Greek means Christ-related-birth-fear i.e., a phobia of Christmas.
Is it a real phobia? Not really.
Dougal Sutherland of Umbrella Wellbeing talked to Jack Tame about the discomfort and anxiety that surrounds Christmas for some people.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
That'd be.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
While I'm very much looking forward to a break into Christmas,
not everyone looks forward to the twenty fifth. Apparently there
is a thing called Christo jena ticophobia. Got that Christa
jena ticophobia. I'm not even sure it would fit on
a scrabble board, let alone when you a bonus for
a triple word score. But Doogle Sutherland from Umbrella Well
(00:32):
Being is here with us this morning to explain exactly
what christa jen techophobia actually is. Is it really a phobia?
Speaker 4 (00:39):
Doogle, I killed a jack.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
That would be a score of like nine million on
stra if you actually got it.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
No, it's not really.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I actually came across this week or two ago I went,
is that a real thing? The Greek translation, apparently, because
all things get translated from Greek, is literally christ related
birth fear.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
So but there you go.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
But it's no, it's not really a phobia. I think
it's a it's a it's more of a reminder that,
you know, sometimes some of us feel awkward at particular times,
or or don't enjoy things that others that others do enjoy.
Now there are some other non phobias as well that
you sort of cover. There's no mophobia, which is fear
(01:23):
of no mobile.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Phones, many no mustaches.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, well that would have been a good one, Yeah,
fear of a bald face. There's the side of phobia,
which is fear of making decisions. And there is ergophobia,
which is fear of work, which many people at this time, yeah,
perhaps are experiencing or fear of returning to work at
least there, but they're not really super you know, they're
(01:51):
not serious phobus.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
But it's a good idea to kind of think about.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, well, is everybody going to be finding this time
of year really all that happy?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yeah? Yeah, and I suppose they're not. I mean, like,
you know, this time of year does come with its
fair share of stresses. So if you are one who
not necessarily dreads Christmas, but you know, it doesn't lean
in quite so hard as as some others, I suppose
it's totally understandable.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I mean, if you think about Christmas, there's lots of
socializing and going out, and you know, if you struggle
a bit with that, with social relationships, you're a bit
more introverted. You you might find out a little bit
more difficult to tolerate, you know, as I'm sure you
have good firsthand experience, and often there's that pressure for
pearance to be buying big presents and the latest thing,
(02:37):
and you know, for many families they've done it hard
this year with redundancies and the cost of living and
that can be a real struggle. And also of course,
you know, even you know, further down there's those people
that will be really struggling to put food on the
table at all, and you know, getting getting perhaps worse
in our current sort of economic environment.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
So you know, I think I think, you know, i'd.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
Encourage people to fully enjoy themselves that's Christmas, and will
be with theirs and their loved loved ones, but also
to kind of think about is there anything I can
do to actually reach out and make somebody else's Christmas
that extra little bit special as well.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, it's a really good message. So back to phobias.
Can you have a phobia of pretty much anything?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Well, yeah, technically you probably can. There are some really
common ones that people are actually if I just as
an aside, I've seen some quite bizarre ones. I've seen
a friend of mine was super super phobic of not
not not just birds, but specifically pigeons and would really
freak out if face sort of you know how they
(03:45):
sort of tend to fly up quite close to your face.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, yeah, they sit in the bar plane sometimes and I.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Honestly think, yes, yes, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Going to just leave it so late, and this is
really bold.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
So that I've met somebody that had a fear of hospitals,
and that was to the point that they would often
not leave the house because that there kind of chain.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Of thought when something might happen.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I might go up for lunch and I'd start choking
and they call the ambulance and then I have to.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Go to hospital, and I hate hospitals. So that was
that was a real phobia.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
And then two people this is and these are colleagues
of one that I used to work with, two separate
people that had banana phobias, which was which was quite unusual.
And when we're talking phobias, I think, good to you know,
everybody kind of talks about all, I've got a phobia
of heights or whatever, and we mean clinically when we're
talking about phobias, like.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
A really really really intense.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Fear, not just a I don't really like them. Yeah,
and that you that you do lots and lots to
try and avoid those. And perhaps that person that I
described earlier with the hospital phobia.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
You know that that was an example of going great
lengths to a writer.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, yeah, it's really impacting their life, and it's.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Really impacting their life.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
But you look at it's we think theoretically you can
have a phobia almost anything. There was a famous ethically
you be a somewhat psychology experiment in the nineteen twenties
where a famous psychologist did an experiment on his own
nine month old child, So don't recommend you're doing this
on your son. And they paired a white rat, not
(05:22):
a tame one, with a really loud sound, a really
loud bang, and the baby went from being completely fine
around the rat being quite scared of it, and then
that fear started to generalize to anything that was white
and fluffy.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Including teddy bears.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
So they were trying to sort of establish that maybe
you can be afraid of anything, or establish a fear
of anything, and that can grow to sort of very
things that are similar to it. So yeah, technically you
probably can have a phobia or anything, maybe including Christmas.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
On the Yeah, yeah, that's interesting. I think I've seen
a video on social media and can tell you about
the kind of accounts that I've followen on what my
algorithm's doing to me that shows a group of babies
with a python, a python kind of slithering around them.
And it's obviously a controlled environment, but the video is
showing that these well, yeah, but they're not they're not scared.
(06:13):
I think it's a python. Pythons aren't venomous, are they. Well,
this one you don't know anyway, So they've got a
large snake. Yeah, and it's not a venomous snake. But
the point is that the kids aren't scared of it
because they just kind of just sitting there and the
snake's kind of slithering around them and they're all just thing,
oh do.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
But yeah, I certainly have come across people, you know,
post those sort of big storms in the North Island.
You know, they're really big ones a couple of years
ago who had a real fear and probably verging on
a phobia of of you know, rain and big weather
storms every Yeah, yeah, yeah, it makes perfect sense, and
(06:54):
it's just our body's way of sort of trying to
keep us safe.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
But it sort of has has like a fire.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Alarm that kind of gives off too many false alarms
and sort of it's going off all the time.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
But rest assured.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
They are pretty readily curable by psychologists, So if you've
got a phobia, you don't really have to suffer from
it nowadays that they are pretty treatable.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Oh that's good. Oh yeah, yeah, Okay, your life doesn't
if you do not. I definitely don't. I don't have
any big phobias. There's nothing that makes my life materially worse.
But I do if there was one thing that I
don't like that I would have, you know that I
would say, oh, you've got a phobia. This is going
to get a bit left field. Balloons, Oh yeah, the
(07:36):
reason being I don't trust this and I'm waiting for them,
and especially like especially if there are loose balloons like
on the floor or something, I'm just waiting for someone
to stand on it or to pop it, and it
gives me like a sense of anxiety. I'm just waiting
for a loud noise. I know that seems ridiculous. I
just don't well, I just I just don't. I don't
like and you know sometimes they just burst when you're
not expecting it, and just anyway, for whatever reason it is,
(07:59):
I don't. I don't love balloons.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
It's almost a classic description because many people for their
phobias say, hey, look, I know it's a bit but
I know it seems unrealistic. But in the at the moment,
you know, in the moment, I actually feel quite you know,
quite weirded out by it.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
So yeah, well, good luck for the future birthday party.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yes, exactly exactly. I mean, my my, my dislike of
balloons isn't so intense that I that we don't you
know that we have or anything like that. But it's
just I just don't. Just you know, if they're loose
on the ground and there are kids playing with them,
that always annoy me, just because I know that they're
going to be allowed bang, but I don't know where
the band's coming. I think that I don't like it.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah, I just said, there's a mug of you sort
of tiptoeing around at birthday parties, I know, you know,
walking on each kids.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Yeah, yeah, anywhere treatable if you see a good.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yes, exactly exactly. Of coursely optimistic. It hasn't reached.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
That threshold, but yeah, good.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Hey, have a great Christmas. Thank you for a fantastic
here in twenty twenty five. Doogle, enjoy your break and
we will catch again very soon. Google Sutherland from Umbrella
well Being.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
For more from Saturday Awning with Jack Tame. Listen live
to news Talks at b from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
That'd be.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
While I'm very much looking forward to a break into Christmas,
not everyone looks forward to the twenty fifth. Apparently there
is a thing called Christo jena ticophobia. Got that Christa
jena ticophobia. I'm not even sure it would fit on
a scrabble board, let alone when you a bonus for
a triple word score. But Doogle Sutherland from Umbrella Well
(00:32):
Being is here with us this morning to explain exactly
what christa jen techophobia actually is. Is it really a phobia?
Speaker 4 (00:39):
Doogle, I killed a jack.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
That would be a score of like nine million on
stra if you actually got it.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
No, it's not really.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I actually came across this week or two ago I went,
is that a real thing? The Greek translation, apparently, because
all things get translated from Greek, is literally christ related
birth fear.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
So but there you go.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
But it's no, it's not really a phobia. I think
it's a it's a it's more of a reminder that,
you know, sometimes some of us feel awkward at particular times,
or or don't enjoy things that others that others do enjoy.
Now there are some other non phobias as well that
you sort of cover. There's no mophobia, which is fear
(01:23):
of no mobile.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Phones, many no mustaches.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, well that would have been a good one, Yeah,
fear of a bald face. There's the side of phobia,
which is fear of making decisions. And there is ergophobia,
which is fear of work, which many people at this time, yeah,
perhaps are experiencing or fear of returning to work at
least there, but they're not really super you know, they're
(01:51):
not serious phobus.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
But it's a good idea to kind of think about.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, well, is everybody going to be finding this time
of year really all that happy?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yeah? Yeah, and I suppose they're not. I mean, like,
you know, this time of year does come with its
fair share of stresses. So if you are one who
not necessarily dreads Christmas, but you know, it doesn't lean
in quite so hard as as some others, I suppose
it's totally understandable.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I mean, if you think about Christmas, there's lots of
socializing and going out, and you know, if you struggle
a bit with that, with social relationships, you're a bit
more introverted. You you might find out a little bit
more difficult to tolerate, you know, as I'm sure you
have good firsthand experience, and often there's that pressure for
pearance to be buying big presents and the latest thing,
(02:37):
and you know, for many families they've done it hard
this year with redundancies and the cost of living and
that can be a real struggle. And also of course,
you know, even you know, further down there's those people
that will be really struggling to put food on the
table at all, and you know, getting getting perhaps worse
in our current sort of economic environment.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
So you know, I think I think, you know, i'd.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
Encourage people to fully enjoy themselves that's Christmas, and will
be with theirs and their loved loved ones, but also
to kind of think about is there anything I can
do to actually reach out and make somebody else's Christmas
that extra little bit special as well.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, it's a really good message. So back to phobias.
Can you have a phobia of pretty much anything?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Well, yeah, technically you probably can. There are some really
common ones that people are actually if I just as
an aside, I've seen some quite bizarre ones. I've seen
a friend of mine was super super phobic of not
not not just birds, but specifically pigeons and would really
freak out if face sort of you know how they
(03:45):
sort of tend to fly up quite close to your face.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, yeah, they sit in the bar plane sometimes and I.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Honestly think, yes, yes, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Going to just leave it so late, and this is
really bold.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
So that I've met somebody that had a fear of hospitals,
and that was to the point that they would often
not leave the house because that there kind of chain.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Of thought when something might happen.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I might go up for lunch and I'd start choking
and they call the ambulance and then I have to.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Go to hospital, and I hate hospitals. So that was
that was a real phobia.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
And then two people this is and these are colleagues
of one that I used to work with, two separate
people that had banana phobias, which was which was quite unusual.
And when we're talking phobias, I think, good to you know,
everybody kind of talks about all, I've got a phobia
of heights or whatever, and we mean clinically when we're
talking about phobias, like.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
A really really really intense.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Fear, not just a I don't really like them. Yeah,
and that you that you do lots and lots to
try and avoid those. And perhaps that person that I
described earlier with the hospital phobia.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
You know that that was an example of going great
lengths to a writer.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, yeah, it's really impacting their life, and it's.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Really impacting their life.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
But you look at it's we think theoretically you can
have a phobia almost anything. There was a famous ethically
you be a somewhat psychology experiment in the nineteen twenties
where a famous psychologist did an experiment on his own
nine month old child, So don't recommend you're doing this
on your son. And they paired a white rat, not
(05:22):
a tame one, with a really loud sound, a really
loud bang, and the baby went from being completely fine
around the rat being quite scared of it, and then
that fear started to generalize to anything that was white
and fluffy.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Including teddy bears.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
So they were trying to sort of establish that maybe
you can be afraid of anything, or establish a fear
of anything, and that can grow to sort of very
things that are similar to it. So yeah, technically you
probably can have a phobia or anything, maybe including Christmas.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
On the Yeah, yeah, that's interesting. I think I've seen
a video on social media and can tell you about
the kind of accounts that I've followen on what my
algorithm's doing to me that shows a group of babies
with a python, a python kind of slithering around them.
And it's obviously a controlled environment, but the video is
showing that these well, yeah, but they're not they're not scared.
(06:13):
I think it's a python. Pythons aren't venomous, are they. Well,
this one you don't know anyway, So they've got a
large snake. Yeah, and it's not a venomous snake. But
the point is that the kids aren't scared of it
because they just kind of just sitting there and the
snake's kind of slithering around them and they're all just thing,
oh do.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
But yeah, I certainly have come across people, you know,
post those sort of big storms in the North Island.
You know, they're really big ones a couple of years
ago who had a real fear and probably verging on
a phobia of of you know, rain and big weather
storms every Yeah, yeah, yeah, it makes perfect sense, and
(06:54):
it's just our body's way of sort of trying to
keep us safe.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
But it sort of has has like a fire.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Alarm that kind of gives off too many false alarms
and sort of it's going off all the time.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
But rest assured.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
They are pretty readily curable by psychologists, So if you've
got a phobia, you don't really have to suffer from
it nowadays that they are pretty treatable.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Oh that's good. Oh yeah, yeah, Okay, your life doesn't
if you do not. I definitely don't. I don't have
any big phobias. There's nothing that makes my life materially worse.
But I do if there was one thing that I
don't like that I would have, you know that I
would say, oh, you've got a phobia. This is going
to get a bit left field. Balloons, Oh yeah, the
(07:36):
reason being I don't trust this and I'm waiting for them,
and especially like especially if there are loose balloons like
on the floor or something, I'm just waiting for someone
to stand on it or to pop it, and it
gives me like a sense of anxiety. I'm just waiting
for a loud noise. I know that seems ridiculous. I
just don't well, I just I just don't. I don't
like and you know sometimes they just burst when you're
not expecting it, and just anyway, for whatever reason it is,
(07:59):
I don't. I don't love balloons.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
It's almost a classic description because many people for their
phobias say, hey, look, I know it's a bit but
I know it seems unrealistic. But in the at the moment,
you know, in the moment, I actually feel quite you know,
quite weirded out by it.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
So yeah, well, good luck for the future birthday party.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yes, exactly exactly. I mean, my my, my dislike of
balloons isn't so intense that I that we don't you
know that we have or anything like that. But it's
just I just don't. Just you know, if they're loose
on the ground and there are kids playing with them,
that always annoy me, just because I know that they're
going to be allowed bang, but I don't know where
the band's coming. I think that I don't like it.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah, I just said, there's a mug of you sort
of tiptoeing around at birthday parties, I know, you know,
walking on each kids.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Yeah, yeah, anywhere treatable if you see a good.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yes, exactly exactly. Of coursely optimistic. It hasn't reached.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
That threshold, but yeah, good.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Hey, have a great Christmas. Thank you for a fantastic
here in twenty twenty five. Doogle, enjoy your break and
we will catch again very soon. Google Sutherland from Umbrella
well Being.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
For more from Saturday Awning with Jack Tame. Listen live
to news Talks at b from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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