It may be hard to believe, but the holidays can stress you out – especially if you have to get together with family.

How does the saying go? “You can pick your friends, but you can’t choose your relatives!”

And seeing is how more and more people are going to be on the road during a holiday which promises to be messy according to meteorologist Dan Zarrow – who needs the added stress.

So when you get together with family – do you sit in a corner quiet as a church mouse – or, if you’re like my family, shout over each other!

And what do you tend to argue about?

I could remember one Christmas Eve arriving at my brother’s house – and for some unexplained reason, the subject of Sarah Palin was brought up.

I may have made a snarky remark about her malapropos, but this didn’t go over well with my mom. I think by the time we started talking about it, mom had hit a few too many Manhattans to think clearly – and began killing me for being a “G----mn” liberal.

Where did that come from?

So with that in mind, according to Rutgers-Camden Associate Professor of Psychology Sean Duffy, here’s a couple of way’s to avoid arguments and have a stress-free holiday with family:

1) Discuss any potentially large disagreements beforehand, in order to avoid any blowups while carving the turkey (or any other point in the day where sharp cutlery is involved).

In other words, if things in your family have been festering for the last 50 years, it’s best just to let them go. Discretion is the better part of valor.

Laugh at yourself and don’t take anyone’s BS seriously. Stewing over someone’s dopey remarks will only serve to give you an ulcer.

Whether or not Sarah Palin is a ditz, or if Chris Christie is a blowhard means nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Leading us to:

The Pope is quoted as saying, “who am I to judge.”

Same with this – don’t judge a relative’s viewpoint just because it’s diametrically opposed to yours. Just eat and be thankful you have a family with whom to enjoy the holiday. Think of all the others who don’t!

In short, Duffy’s advice is to keep family arguments, politics, religion and the like out of the conversation.

Maybe the line “…eh, whattaya want from me?” from “Goodfellas” might do the trick!

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