Holiday season is a unique time, marked by joyful tidings and general merriment.

The world lit up with the gleeful sounds of children playing, choirs singing, snowflakes falling … and to be honest, it is understandable if this all can be a little bit sickening.

Coming straight off the heels of the aptly named “dead” week and heading into “finals” week, it is fathomable if you are feeling a little empty inside.

I mean you likely just spent the last two weeks holed up at your desk hunched over an insane amount of homework, trying desperately to resuscitate potentially lackluster GPAs, all while drinking yourself into such a coffee-and-stress-induced haze that your mental state boarders on the pathological.

So it is reasonable if stepping back into a warm, well lit house full of aggressively cheerful relatives who rhetorically ask you for the umpteenth time if you grew since last time you met is a difficult task.

There are just so many people to hug, cheeks to kiss, relatives to lie to about how old they look.

It can be utterly exhausting.

It’s not that you’re a bad person. It’s not that you don’t want to participate in the annual making of the macaroni necklaces. It’s just that after three weeks of intense academia, it will look suspiciously like an activity that requires some degree of work and mental engagement.

Additionally, coming home can completely interfere with your college student nap schedule, having all that responsibility to be social and cheerful and conscious. Fair warning, according to Western social norms, it can be perceived as rude to straight up fall asleep in the middle of Christmas.

Going home is also a challenge when one examines the demographics. Living in a town such as Pullman where, according to 2014 U.S. Census data, almost 30 percent of the population is between 18 and 25, it can be quite the adjustment to go back to interacting almost exclusively with old people, your parents and children.

But it can help to think of the children as just very small freshmen. Imagine them with their own little Cougar lanyard and heart full of hope, and remember how very delicate you were at that age.

However, while it can be difficult and there are admittedly challenges to being loving and affectionate this holiday season, it can be essential in maintaining long-term familial connections, which it turns out, are important.

One main aspect of appearing to be a caring person is participation. Participating in the holiday activities is one sure fire way to show that you do in fact have a heart. Also, it can even be fun at times.

Just remember though, if you happen to participate in the activity that is drinking with your family, the mood is probably more “Peppermint Schnapps and Baileys” and less “straight Vodka and turn down for what.”

Another important part of being a healthy and loving person is physical affection.

Physical affection can be difficult, but according to “basic human needs” it is crucial.

Psychologist Harry Harlow’s 1950s experiment on affection using monkeys found that despite the instinctual need for food, the baby monkeys would spend almost all of their time clinging to a dishcloth-wrapped wire monkey instead of a plain wire one that had food.

Basically, if a monkey can spend eight hours a day hugging a dishcloth, then you can spend 15 seconds hugging your mom.

A final overarching aspect of being a good person this holiday season is being nice. It is likely that your parents hold you to revoltingly-high standard of manners during this time of year. 

No matter how drunk and frat boy-esque that one uncle becomes, it is considered outside of the bounds of social acceptability to be anything but soul-suckingly pleasant toward him.

This also extends to tasks such as chores. When you are expected to pick up every individual pine needle off the floor under the tree, you are likely expected to do so with a smile on your face.

And while it may feel like a piece of your soul is dying inside with the picking up of each pine needle or every forced smile at a relative’s terrible pun, in the larger scheme of things it is an essential part of the holiday season.

 It means a lot to your mom that you are willing to suck it up and be so warm and charming. It calms her mind and gives her ample fodder for off-season bragging about you.

A large part of growing up is feeling like you are dying inside. But at least during the holiday season it is arguably worth it, for the feeling of kinship with your family and relatives … and all the cookies. Mostly for the cookies.