Some people see the drop in temperature and the see all of the Christmas lights and are filled with happiness and joy and excitement for the holiday season to come. However, not all of us feel quite so whimsical when we see the Christmas trees go up. There are some of us in this great nation whose eyes start to twitch and our heads start to ache because before we can enjoy the Holidays and relax with our families and wait for the snow to fall we first have to experience the end of the semester and hope that we can even survive to see the middle of December.

Finals week is coming. It’s the one week that every student spends the entirety of the semester dreading. During this week, our days are spent leaning over desks or scribbling notes on a white board in hopes of completing our long list of projects due throughout the week. We cram our study material and we drink enough coffee that we could probably see sounds and hear colors. When the night comes, we barely notice because we haven’t seen the sun in days.

This week is hell for most of us college students. This week is the bane of our existence and the reason for all of our tears. For a lot of students, this week determines whether we pass or whether we fail these classes that could push our graduation back another semester. It’s a stressful time for all of us, and we need your help.

This holiday season, please keep your broke, stressed, and worried college students in mind. Sometimes, we forget the things that we need to do for everyday survival, like eat. So, if you really want to make this holiday special for those stressed out kids in your life, send them an early gift of some quick-to-eat snacks or a gift card to their favorite fast-food restaurant.

It will not only send them some momentary relief from their worries but, you never know, the time they take to eat what you give them may be the only opportunity they have to eat all day, and without you, they may not have taken the time to eat at all.

If you really want this year to be something special, save all of your holiday-talk for after your student has turned in their last project or completed their last exam. Save them the stress of having to listen to you rant on for an hour about Drunk Uncle Earl and whether or not he should be invited to Christmas Brunch.

They don’t need to spend their time consoling you when you realize you missed out on the sale of that flat-screen TV when they should be studying for the big exam they have in an hour. Saving this conversation for later will give your student more time to focus on that test and give you a better peace of mind that they can know into their test completely focused.

There isn’t much that you can do to make this stressful week go by a little smoother, but whatever you can do your student will greatly appreciate it. So remember your college kids this year. They need you.