Hello, and welcome to December! In a normal year I would wish you a white Christmas, but thankfully I don’t have to, since it’s probably already been snowing where you live for about two weeks. If you live in America, then you know that we have Canada to blame for this. They sent us all their cold air early this year, pushed south in a furious rush that I have heard one weatherperson refer to as the ‘Bomb Vortex.’ Apparently even the weather is a terrorist now. Why does it hate our freedom?

Anyway, I want this to be a happy month for you, and I’m not about to let the weather get in my way. Most of the newsletters you’ll read this month will be a retrospective of 2014 or a preparation for 2015. But this year’s not over yet – and given the number of Christmas cookies that are about to be forcibly shoved at you, there’s no guarantee we’ll make it to see 2015. Besides, I want to have fun now. I failed the marshmallow test, and I think you should too.

So here are several things you can this month to make December 2014 the best holiday month you can imagine. And some of these even require an early snow – how about that?

Bring a Snowball Into The Office

You’ll have about 30 minutes to decide who to throw it at, and your colleagues will have 30 minutes to try and convince you to throw it at somebody other than them. The ultimate teambuilding experience!

Wear A Giant Elf Costume

This is the only month in which doing so will be considered ‘festive’ instead of ‘deeply disturbing.’ I recommend one with extra curly slippers.

Entertain Yourself For a Cause

We did, and you probably didn’t know how much fun you could have asking people to donate to charity.

Make Snow Angels In The Parking Spaces At Work

Then see how long it takes for somebody to park on top of them. You should find people surprisingly reluctant to do so, which means this is also a great way to save yourself a prime parking spot. If you don’t have snow where you live, get a few bags of packing peanuts and make your own!

Initiate a Gingerbread-House-Building Competition

The more people you get to help you, the bigger you can make it. Perhaps this can become a new permanent art installation in your lobby. Yes, it sounds dorky, but people like dorky things. They just don’t like to admit it right away.

Donate Old Office Supplies To Charity

You’ll get a cleaner office, and needy people will get things that very few of us think to donate. Besides, we usually think that toys and clothes are the most important gifts we can give the less fortunate. But what about ‘Internet access’? That’s a pretty solid present, wouldn’t you say?

Call A Colleague You’ve Lost Touch With

This is the season for reconnecting! It’s a great time to see how your long-lost colleague is doing and maybe you’ll even find some new business opportunities.  Besides, what’s the worst that can happen – you continue not talking to them? That’s hardly terrifying. There are millions of people I don’t talk to everyday, and I’m totally fine with myself.

Work While Everyone Else Is Home

There’s no better time to get caught up than when the office is empty. I don’t think you should do too much of this, but let’s be honest – do you really want to spend all of your time with family? You’ll probably just end up watching a bunch of shows you don’t even like that much. I know the idea that productivity might make you happy seems foreign and a little weird, but give it time to sink in. Breathe. That’s it. Breeeathe.

So there you go! We’re in the middle of the most festive month of the year, and you deserve to be joyful and yuley and cinnamon-flavored and eggnoggy and all the other things December is known for. Live for now, and worry about 2015 in a few weeks.

And thank you, so very much, for being a part of our world. It’s been an interesting, crazy, eventful, mostly awesome year, and I’m confident that with you in my life, next year will be even more mostly awesome. Have a wonderful holiday!