'Holidates' Wanted: Looking Online for Holiday-Season Love
Singletons look online for love but only for the holiday season.
Dec. 6, 2011 — -- "Let's cut to the chase: Holidays are the worst time to be single and some of us are just over it. We're two single girls looking for a pair of seasonal boyfriends for Christmas and New Year's and only for Christmas and New Year's," read a posting on the "Two Girls, One Season" tumblr page.
The two supposed 26-year-olds in the San Francisco Bay Area who started the blog are looking for a fairy tale romance, but not the forever kind. This love comes with an expiration date.
"Our love will be fake, but epic," the girls write. "We'll wear matching sweaters. We'll attend Cuddlefest 2011 by the fire. We'll bake gingerbread cookies and decorate them to look like us. We'll be the f**king spitting image of the last 30 minutes of 'Love Actually.'"
"Then we dump you. The day after New Year's," the post reads.
What these two women are looking for are "holidates," men to keep them company during the onslaught of holiday parties, traditions and events.
The women originally posted their ad on Craigslist, before having the ad removed twice from the website and moving their search to tumblr. They did not respond to requests from ABCNews.com for interviews, but these California girls aren't the only ones looking for holiday love, however temporary.
Men are also looking for seasonal love. A self-described 28-year-old entrepreneur, also in San Francisco, posted a similar ad that was also removed from Craigslist.
"Let me be clear. I want a girlfriend. But I don't really want a girlfriend," he wrote in his post. "I just want one for the holidays."
Another post, this one on Denver Craigslist, was titled "Cute, Sane, Stable, Single & Silly Gent Seeking Date for the Holidays."
In that one, the man described himself as a "reasonably sane gentleman" willing to be someone's holidate.
So why the sudden need for romance at the beginning of December?
The weeks before Christmas are one of the year's highest break-up times, second only to spring break, according to a "Peak Break-Up Times" chart, which David McCandless and Lee Byron created by tracking Facebook relationships.
"I think it's kind of clever," Dr. Pepper Schwartz, a University of Washington professor of sociology and chief expert at PerfectMatch.com, told ABCNews.com. "Sometimes these things are so daunting in many ways. At a big cocktail, having someone to shield you from who you didn't want to talk to and take away the first questions, 'Are you here alone?' or 'Are you seeing anyone?' kind of stops a whole lot of icky stuff. I don't think it's anybody's business but your own who that person is."
Schwartz said that the holidays can often exacerbate feelings of loneliness when "everything is conspiring to make you lonely."
"All the twinkling lights, all the sappy songs, all of the ads on TV of happy families and loving partners and women opening up gifts to see diamonds ... how could you not feel lonely if you're not with somebody?" she asked.
Schwartz doesn't believe there's anything wrong with masking -- or omitting -- the truth from co-workers, friends and family as long as the date isn't presented as a serious relationship. She also emphasized the importance of being clear with the short-term partner.
"You have to be clear about what their duties are and are not, how much you're going to pay," Schwartz said. "It's one of those things where gray is not a good color. It should be very black and white. This is professional. I need you to help me get through this season."
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