It’s Sunday, Dec. 20 and your younger siblings are outside playing in the snow, laughing with friends and drinking hot chocolate; your older siblings are home from college, sleeping till noon and watching Netflix all day—and you’re cooped up in your room trying to memorize 500 vocab words.

Your holiday spirit is absent and you’re envious of your siblings enjoying the season. This year finals go until Tuesday, Dec. 22, three days before Christmas. Not only will the holiday spirit be diminished, but also the distractions caused by seasonal activities will make it even harder to study. But LT, we must overcome this hurdle.

Finals are stressful; heck the whole month before finals is stressful. Teachers cram projects and essays in before the semester ends, and you’re trying to bring your 88.9 percent up to an 89.5 percent so you can exempt. You’re up every night studying, finishing projects, writing essays and memorizing equations for math—you’re not watching Christmas movie marathons or enjoying Peppermint Mochas at Starbucks.

I know this Grinch-like feeling all too well, and it’s terrible. This is something that we all must face this year and for the rest of our educational lives. LT can’t just change the day that Christmas falls on, and finals need to happen at some point, so we are left stressing over finals instead of getting ready for the holidays. However, instead of moaning and groaning about this inconvenience, take little opportunities to enjoy the holiday sprit, while still being productive. I’ve made a list of ways you can feel more like Buddy the Elf, and less like the Grinch this holiday season.

1. While you study, listen to “Christmas Hits” station on Pandora—Mariah Carey’s festive tunes are the perfect backdrop to any calculus cramming.
2. Study at Starbucks and indulge in your favorite holiday beverage. Peppermint mocha and Spanish vocab terms are the perfect combo. (Bonus: on the drive to Starbucks, listen to Christmas music in the car).
3. Download the audio version of your English book on your phone, plug it into your car and drive around looking at Christmas lights while simultaneously listening to Romeo and Juliet’s tragic love story.
4. Allow yourself a 30-minute homework break every night to watch your favorite Christmas movies. In three days you can finish “Elf”—definitely worth it.
5. Sport your favorite ugly sweater and fuzzy socks to school and you will automatically feel the Christmas spirit.
6. While your favorite Christmas cookies are in the oven baking, use the time to study the Periodic Table, and once they come out eat them while watching a YouTube video on stoichiometry.
7. Instead of spending your “study breaks” checking your phone, spend two-hours outside ice skating, sledding or ambushing friends with snowballs.

I could go on and on with suggestions of how you can still enjoy the holiday season and ace your final exams. So make sure you take the time to study this finals season, while still appreciating all that Christmas and winter have to offer, because when you look back on Christmas 2k15 in 10 years, you will definitely remember jamming out to Wham’s “Last Christmas,” and not the equation of a tangent line.