Holiday stress is real. There is no getting around it. True, you could always decide, either for religious or practical or purely curmudgeonly reasons, to eschew the holiday season, but it is highly unlikely that you will be able to get away with it.

This year, Hanukkah, a calmer, quieter celebration, coincides with the Christmas/New year season, running from the evening of Dec. 25 through Jan. 2, 2025.

You will be fighting traffic, waiting in line and putting up with the cancellation of your favorite television shows to allow tired old Thanksgiving and Christmas specials from years gone by to air, over and over and over again. You will be subjected to tunes like “I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus,” “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas” and “Grandma got Run Over by a Reindeer” blaring out at you every time you turn on your car radio, visit a shopping mall or run to the store for a gallon of milk.

Yes, you will be refusing invitations, explaining that you don’t exchange gifts, turning down eggnog and cookies and insulting your secret Santa. Your children will be sent to the alternative activity room while other children are singing carols and making wreaths. It isn’t easy to go against the tide of an entire gigantic holiday culture. I say we might as well embrace it, with all of its pitfalls and delights.

Gift giving is so intricately complicated in all of its social, cultural, financial and psychological aspects that it requires its own column, or volume; yet even something as mundane as housecleaning can be stressful.

If those people who habitually keep their living space neat as a pin make themselves frantic over imaginary dust motes, cobwebs and fingerprints during the holidays, just think what it must be like for the rest of us.

Before the holidays, you think you have plenty of time, for example, to clean and organize the spare room. Important papers, not-so-important papers, papers of uncertain import — once again, you simply can’t decide — become unwieldy and impossible to deal with properly. Just put a padlock on the spare room door. This way you can throw in questionable items as you run round and round like a whirlwind before company arrives, then quickly lock it up when the doorbell rings.

Don’t worry if you forget the combination. You don’t need anything in there anyway.

At first, Christmas is no more than a faint dot on the horizon. You’d practically have to squint to see it. Closer and closer it comes, traveling exponentially faster and faster. At a certain point people shift into gear and begin their Christmas prep in earnest, although for a few — if I had to hazard a guess, I would say these people are mostly men — this doesn’t happen until Christmas Eve.

Luckily, especially for children, here in the Adirondacks Santa won’t be accompanied by his traditional Germanic sidekick, Krampus. According to legend, this hideous horned, long-tongued monster, half goat and half demon, drags disobedient children off to his secret lair, or perhaps to the underworld.

Krampus, the antithesis of the kindly Saint Nicholas, emerged from pre-Christian Alpine winter solstice rites and folklore of Central European countries, including Germany, Austria, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and switzerland.

Krampus has gained some popularity in a few American cities in recent years, but I think we are still safe in the Adirondacks.

(For interesting and amusing European variations on our typical American Christmas memes and themes, I like to browse in the Mini EuroMart in Lake Placid, conveniently located in the same shopping center as Green Goddess Natural Foods and Terry Robards Wines and Spirits.)

In the United States and England, Christmas as we know it was not celebrated until the early 1800s. Until then, if it was observed at all, it was a sort of holdover from pagan winter solstice festivities.

In the 19th Century, Queen Victoria was responsible for popularizing the lighted Christmas tree, just as she made the white wedding gown a tradition.

Clement Clarke Moore’s poem “A visit from St. Nicholas” and Charles Dickens’ novel, “A Christmas Carol,” anticipate our modern domestic Christmas.

After the holidays, I am going to finish doing a lot of things I don’t have time for right now; although at this time of year, it is difficult to imagine anything after the holidays.

Have a good week! We’re just getting started.