Most of my paternal kin-group are winter depressives to some extent; it is a great pity the ancestors picked Canada as their emigration target! We find light boxes and sunlight-effect light bulbs very helpful, and I also keep winter-blooming houseplants. Orchids are remarkably easy to grow, and -- like cats -- so beautiful they just have to be good for you.

Azizi, I feel for you on the Christmas-rammed-down-the-throat problem. It's bad enough in comparatively restrained Ottawa; I can't imagine how oppressive it must be in the States, where bigger, sooner and more expensive seems to be the constant theme of much public culture. This year, for the first time, the big downtown Ottawa stores began putting out their Christmas merchandise before Hallowe'en, and the whole thing makes me want to knock my head against a concrete wall. I can't think of a thing I want for Christmas except maybe an opportunity to sit around the house for several days with no social or professional obligations to attend to except feeding Edmund and the cats, and I know I'm not unusual.

The only solution I have ever found for Christmas frenzy is deliberation. I observe Advent, the penitential season before Christmas, with conscious effort. That means a plain diet (no Christmas goodies before Christmas), and no tree or other decorations until Christmas Eve. I tidy and clean the house, and do tasks I have been putting off. I make the more complicated things for the Christmas feast, such as fruitcake and steamed puddings. And I do the dreaded Christmas shopping. That's it.

It helps that I don't have children hassling me with demands ("Everybody else has their tree up; why can't we?"), and I don't watch television. Office Christmas parties are avoidable (they're no fun, so no loss). And of course I belong to a church that takes both Advent and Christmas very seriously, so I have a life-long pattern to follow. Basically, I consider the hassle of commercial Christmas simply part of the dues I have to pay for the privilege of living in this impossibly rich and indulgent culture.