I’ll be [here] for Christmas…

Decorating our Christmas tree last year with some broken ornaments we found in a box on a curb. (Photo supplied by Katrina Pyne)

Well, the Parade of Lights has come and passed, which can only mean one thing—bring on the holiday festivities.

We may still have bits of Halloween candy stowed away in our drawers and a Remembrance Day poppy still pinned to our coats, but let’s get festive anyway!

It’s time for us to face the facts: with our last exams ending so late in December that we probably won’t make it home for most of the celebrations (or at all if the Mayan apocalypse prevails), we may as well start celebrating now.

Here are a few holiday tips to get you started:

Holiday tip number one: Buy yourself a nice chocolate advent calendar, the kind with the pop out windows. Then, eat all of the chocolates at once so for a split second you can pretend like you’ve already written your exams and moved on to the rum and eggnogs!

Holiday tip number two: Enjoy the giving of the season by hanging some socks (preferably clean ones) by the fireplace and hiding little treats in them once in a while (jam packets make a great little gift). Your landlord probably filled in the chimney figuring you crazy kids would just set the house on fire so you might as well make use of that mantel somehow.

Holiday tip number three: Decorating your apartment is a must. Let off some steam by cutting out all of the mistakes in your essay rough drafts and making each sheet into a cute little snowflake. You will finally have a real-life use for those obscure term papers!

Holiday tip number four: If you are too cheap for a nice pine tree, find some branches in your backyard and stick them in a bucket of sand. Done and done. Toss some popcorn on that mess of a tree, throw some bobbles on it and you are good to go. If it is sad-looking, watch A Charlie Brown Christmas and you’ll feel better about it.

Holiday tip number five: Do all of your Christmas shopping in Halifax. You definitely won’t have time later and this way everything can be Titanic-themed!

Holiday tip number six: Save some electricity by turning off the bright overhead lights in your house and plugging in the LEDs. Nothing says Christmas like an apartment that screams “red light district.”

Holiday tip number seven. Crank down the heat, and embrace the cold. Being freezing constantly may even get you a sick note or two for your exams and you’ll get a fabulously low oil bill as a present.

Holiday tip number eight: Save yourself an attempt at recreating your great grandmother’s Yule log and just break out the Pillsbury. Bonus points if you actually bother to bake the dough into cookies.

Holiday tip number nine: Invest in a holiday sweater. Come spring you can wear it ironically and be the perfect hipster.

Holiday tip number ten: And after all of this trouble, for the love of God, do not miss your flight home.