The weather outside might be frightful but inside it's definitely worse. According to New York psychologist Jay Seitz, 25 percent of people experience some kind of holiday anxiety or depression. That is, one in four people sipping eggnog feel like that stale, bland, unpopular fruitcake that was re-gifted five times before it was fed to the neighbor's cat on Christmas Eve. Yes, the holidays do bring a magic and excitement to the month of December, but the stress, loneliness and blues pre-packaged with the festivities can be enough to drag one-fourth of us across the tenuous line from sanity to insanity.

Here are 8 tips intended to keep you from hurling the mistletoe at Uncle Fred because he asked for the butter in the wrong tone of voice.

Originally published on Beyond Blue at Beliefnet.com .