Call for Advice: The holiday season, it will surely destroy us all.

The holidays are a special, special time. When we spend too much time and energy figuring out how to spend too much money to satisfy too few people.

But then again, it’s almost certain that not everyone is in as bad a mood as me. And there are plenty of people who find themselves welling up with the genuine warmth and generosity that this season is supposed to engender. None of those people are on my commute, but they’re out there. And they’re lovely. But enough about them.

Some people love the holidays, some people despise them, but no one escapes them. From the annual ritual broadcast of that old Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer special, to the relentless tinny renditions of Let it Snow and Silent Night emanating from speakers you’ve never noticed before, we are made increasingly aware of the looming deadline.

I want to know how you make it work.

• Do you have a shopping strategy for getting it all done on time and on budget?
• How do you deal with the demands of family? Or with specific, unruly relatives?
• What’s the best way to handle the office holiday party, or other workplace ritual? And how important is it to participate?
• Do you have any gifting or seasonal gratuity rules you live by?
• Have you figured out how to make travel more pleasant (or at least more bearable)?
• And what do you do when faced with the annoyingly perky or the depressingly curmudgeonly?

My advice for getting through the holidays? Liberal and topical application of kitten belly. the fluffier the better. Repeat as necessary. But that’s actually my advice for getting through most things.

I’ll bet you can do better – comments welcome below, and via these handy links.

• Please send your advice for making a better holiday season.
• Or submit suggestions for people you’d like me to interview on holiday-related topics.

More to come on this topic later in the week.