A Scrooge-Free Holiday

Things are stressful enough right now without the pressures of holiday gatherings, gift-shopping, and grouchy people in our lives who absolutely loathe the holiday season. While the holidays are meant to promote togetherness (and hopefully some economic stimulation this year), more often than not, they also bring out the ugliness in people. The morning of Black Friday, especially, often brings crowds of insane shoppers desperate to get a good deal, ready to fight each other tooth-and-nail for the last items on the shelves. Dr. Richard Carlson’s Don’t Get Scrooged is a jewel of a handbook on how to avoid, appease, and even win over the Scrooges who haunt your holidays. Whether it’s the salesclerk who ignores you in favor of her cell phone, the customer who knowingly jumps ahead of you in line at Starbucks, the unnaturally irritable boss down the hall, or the in-laws who invite themselves (every year) for a two-week stay at your house, you will always need to deal with Scrooges, grumps, uninvited guests, sticks-in-the-mud, and supreme party poopers. Learning to handle them whenever and wherever they appear is not just optional—it’s essential.