I’ll admit, I usually love Christmas. This year however, it isn’t really doing it for me. Christmas spirit is definitely lacking and I’m considering almost skipping the holiday all together. My family probably wouldn’t stand for that though, so I decided to create a Maniacs Guide To Surviving Christmas in the hope that we can all get through the day together.

Firstly, your Christmas tree should look like this. Maybe it isn’t 100% realistic and could be a tough job to get it together so late in the season, but buying that many bottles of Jack Daniels before Christmas is still a good idea, and if nothing else, you can start planning for next year.

You should get a DevilDriver ugly Christmas sweater and wear that. Or a Motorhead one. Or the one that Asking Alexandria did. Or Slayer…well you get the idea. At least no one can accuse you of not being festive on the day and it’s almost the same as wearing a band t-shirt, just a little warmer.

I think it could be a good idea to subtly suggest this to your family if Church once a year is one of your ‘favourite’ traditions..maybe not in the Church so you don’t burst into flames, but on the way or something.

One of the most important things is to find a good Christmas drinking game. Check out Buzzfeed’s Ultimate Christmas Drinking Gameor make up your own! You could be as happy as this guy below.

If you’re into playing jokes on your family or scarring children for life, dress up as a Christmas tree like this guy and see how many people you can scare when taking those Christmas selfies. Or, just sway slighly in front of that uncle that’s probably had a little bit too much to drink and see what happens.

If you or your family is looking to put on some Christmas music to create the mood for the day, chuck on Bad Religion’s Christmas Songs.Perhaps not what your family is expecting, but still festive enough to get away with it.

If none of that is working out for you though, remember that Christmas is one of the two days of the year that you can eat as much or as little deliciousness of whatever you want, and whether you pretend to watch your weight or not, nobody can judge you. That in itself is probably one of the main reasons that Christmas is so special to so many.

Enjoy your holidays, Maniacs! Merry Christmas!