Coping with the "Holiday" season

[thomj513]

OK, so maybe it's not the "deepest" intellectual topic to discuss. But, I'd like to know how other folks deal with the hanukah, christmas, quanza (sp?) holidays. The company I work for has a bunch of, not all, "born again christians" that seem to get overly giddy this time of year with their religion; being of good cheer is one thing but let's not over do it. In the recent past and again for this year I'll be using vacation time so I'll be off work for about two weeks. This gets me out of the office and away from the festivities from mid December until after the new year. I view it as a nice vacation with the added benefit of some great sales going on at the retail level. I also tell friends and family to just get me a card if they have to and if they must give a gift, do it in cash; I'll buy what I like rather than have to exchange something I really don't like nor need. I've heard that some celebrate this time as the winter solstice. Nice idea, I may embrace it. Otherwise, I ignore it the best I can and live each day as if it were like any other. So, how do you "cope"? Thx, TJ.