If you’ve got kids, you’ll already be an old hand at managing expectations around Santa’s gift list. Adopt a similar strategy yourself. “Rather than trying to eradicate the challenges that this time of year presents, it might be helpful instead to try to accept or lean into the fact that it can be difficult,” Blake says. “Having mixed feelings about relationships is a natural occurrence, especially when it comes to family.”

Bringing everyone together under one roof has the potential to ignite tricky family dynamics quicker than a lit match on brandy pudding. “Family relationships are complex systems, which tend to perpetuate long-standing behavioural patterns between individuals,” says clinical psychologist Dr Lucy Viney, cofounder of the Fitzrovia Psychology Clinic. “Bringing awareness to these patterns and finding ways to manage unhelpful dynamics between family members is an important aspect of learning how to cope with triggering situations at this time.”

If your family dynamics are dire, you are under no obligation to participate. Although, if you do, look after yourself. “Many people experience a lot of guilt when it comes to prioritising themselves, especially when this has been historically undermined by family members,” Viney says. “Making yourself a priority means looking after both your body and mind.”

This might mean negotiating time outs with your partner. Taking that solitary walk. Ask Santa for noise-cancelling earphones and put them to good use.

In The Bear, Carmy is poked, prodded and expected to perform a familial role he left behind some time ago. Sound familiar? The predictable way family dynamics play out every year can be leveraged to your advantage. Ahead of the holidays, write down how these manifest in your family and how you might navigate it in a non-reactive way. “Brainstorm any strategies or things you can do or say to manage triggering situations and vulnerabilities,” Viney says. “This will better enable you to manage them effectively.”

Drinking is a familiar coping strategy, especially at big dinners with your extended family’s very own BTL commenter. But alcohol won’t make difficult family members less annoying or offensive.

“Drinking ‘to get through’ something is never a good idea,” says Ms Rosamund Dean, author of Mindful Drinking: How Cutting Down Can Change Your Life. “Alcohol to cope with difficult people or situations might take the edge off in the moment, but always makes things worse ultimately.” Stock up on alcohol-free options and organise new traditions not centred around drinking.

You’ll want to be sober for this next bit. Setting boundaries can help manage tricksy interpersonal dynamics. The “I Statement” approach communicates these boundaries in a way that be helpful in reducing conflict, particularly between family members, Viney says.

The structure is: I feel/When/Because/I need. For example: “I feel upset when I come home for the holidays because there’s a lot of unresolved tension in our family. I need a quiet morning at home and will join you for lunch.” Or: “I feel stressed when people ask me personal questions about my relationship because I do not want to discuss this now. I need you to refrain from questioning me about this.”

In your regular life (oh, how you miss it), you’ll likely be adept at strategies for living well – like eating nutritious food, getting regular exercise and decent sleep. Over the holidays, these hard-won routines are under unique pressure from socially reinforced over-indulgence. Take at least one strategy from your normal life (which you promise never, ever to take for granted again) and make it a non-negotiable here. Pack that running gear. Insist on your regular breakfast routine. Do what you need to take care this season.

If you want to better manage festive drinking, try your ideal version ahead of the big day. “Many of us have never socialised sober, so it might not click immediately,” Dean says. “It’s a practice. It takes a few sober social occasions before you get the hang of who you are in that situation.”