Illustration by Gemma Correll
It?s billed as the most wonderful time of the year. But with the late nights, lack of routine and all that family togetherness, it?s no wonder kids (and parents!) sometimes cave in or blow up sometime in December. Here?s how to deal with common holiday challenges.
Your children
1. Fighting

The teasing your kids started at breakfast on the first day of their school break escalates into a shouting match by lunch.
Solution: When kids are cooped up and out of their routine, they may annoy each other more than usual. ?The lack of structure when kids are out of school can make them feel anxious or insecure, and from that comes grumpiness and irritability, and siblings become a handy target,? says Calgary family educator Judy Arnall, author of Discipline Without Distress. Try planning a daily diversion. Arrange (separate) playdates in advance, take the kids to an indoor play gym, or, if it?s a green December, shoot hoops at the local park. 2. Sermonizing tween

Your newly vegetarian nine-year-old lectures your dinner guests on eating meat.
Solution: Before dinner, review the basics of good manners, says Arnall, the mother of two teenage vegetarians. ?Teach your kids that it?s all right to advocate for their own needs, but not to step on other people?s. So it?s OK to say ?No thanks, I?m a vegetarian? when offered a slice of turkey, but it?s not polite to lecture people.? The same goes for saying grace. ?We?re not churchgoing, so if our hosts or guests...