Ah, December, the month of holiday spirit and celebration — but also a big month for class stresses, winter blues and all-too-contagious seasonal sniffles. These last few slim weeks of the quarter determine over half of our class grades, and , after nine weeks of studying and study breaks, even our usual naps and trips to LateNite don’t seem all that exciting. So here are seven solid suggestions for ways to relax — and show your support for Saturday’s Big Game — in these coming weeks. After all, there are two things that bears are good at: relaxing, and getting their butts kicked at Big Game.

1. Pig out on sweets and holiday food. Grab a pie from the Axe and Palm before they go out of season, get some brownie bites from Safeway or bake cookies. If you’re broke and can’t cook, your RA or Bay Area-dwelling families are likely to have extra candy. Or why not make an event out of it — throw a bonfire at Lake Lag’s fire pit, complete with s’mores! And as an expression of Stanford spirit, buy bear-shaped cookies or gummy bears and violently bite off each of their heads, one by one.

2. Go off-campus for coffee or bubble tea. If you need a quiet, warm place to brainstorm your final paper or polish that problem set with easy access to caffeine, neither a noisy dorm room nor a no-food-or-drink library will cut it. Instead, head to downtown Palo Alto where there are plenty of cafés, complete with requisite yuppies, businesspeople and tired parents — and thankfully devoid of students radiating their pre-finals stress.

3. Meditate or relax in your favorite quiet spot. Find a comfortable spot to sit and clear your mind in MemChu, in the library or on your dorm balcony or roof (bonus points if it’s raining!). If you’re not the kind to sit still for a long time, perhaps stretching or calisthenics will do the trick — just don’t start sweating on your textbooks.

4. Surf the Internet. I’m not talking about the usual sites like Facebook and Wikipedia that you may already associate with procrastination. Why not go to a blog site like Xanga or LiveJournal? Catch up on the lives of your long-lost high-school friends or online pals. Or look through your entries from a year or two ago and remember how simplistic, naïve and emo you were — and relish in how sophisticated and worldly you’ve become by being at Stanford.

5. Go to bed early. Even if you have a paper due the next day, chances are the paper’s going to make a lot more sense if you work on it after a solid eight or nine hours of sleep. You’ll feel great when you wake up early, and you can finally meet all the strange people who eat breakfast the moment the dining halls open at 7:30. Now that you’re awake before your roommate, you can finally get back at him or her for always pressing snooze four or five times before getting up. If you go to bed before midnight during this coming Dead Week, be sure to wear earplugs or, otherwise, brace yourself for Primal Scream!

6. Plan a cuddle party or massage party with your hall or your dorm. Remind everyone how important Branner Love or Larkin Love or Co-op Love is while you’re excitedly rubbing the back of that cute girl down the hall or finally satisfying that odd urge to express a deep familial appreciation for your roommate. What better than an innocent way for your dorm to bond and show care for each other — especially when you start mercilessly tearing each other down during Secret Snowflake next week.

7. Do something artsy or crafty to show your support for Stanford or Big Game. Learn how to knit and make Cardinal-colored scarves and sweaters for yourself and your friends. Raid your dorm basement or student centers for supplies to make big signs to hold up at the Game. Or fabricate a huge model of a tree hulking over a cowering bear and set them up on the Intersection of Death roundabout in the middle of the night.