Are you already sick of the holiday season?

Humbug? I'm not quite there yet -- it's only the middle of December -- but the holiday season can be overwhelming for so many reasons. So if you need some holiday help, The Conversation is here to help! And if you don't want to read another word about the holidays, I've added some of my favourite non-holiday-themed stories from around our global network.

Have a great weekend and we'll be back in your Inbox on Monday.

Scott White

Editor

Weekend Reads

Disappointment about gifts is good for kids who have enough

Nikki Martyn, University of Guelph-Humber; Elena Merenda, University of Guelph-Humber

Hide the credit cards and instead build traditions with your kids. Supporting a child through gift disappointment is important to their emotional, cognitive and social development.

How to infuse your family with the spirit of generosity this Christmas

Sheri Madigan, University of Calgary

Children start developing empathy and compassion as toddlers and should have a good understanding of generosity by age nine. Here are five thoughtful ways parents can help foster these behaviours.

Hate Christmas? A psychologist’s survival guide for Grinches

Karen Rodham, Staffordshire University

How to become a lover of Christmas ... or embrace being a Grinch.

Aux Fêtes, êtes-vous un nostalgique alimentaire​?

Geneviève Sicotte, Concordia University

En préparant les plats des fêtes, nous commémorons des époques révolues auxquelles nous cherchons symboliquement à nous rattacher. Mais pouvons-nous réinventer les traditions?

Dreaming of a green Christmas? Here are five ways to make it more sustainable

Sharon George, Keele University

Only a quarter of Christmas jumpers are reused.

The more male gorillas look after young, the more young they’re likely to have

Stacy Rosenbaum, University of California, Los Angeles

Male gorillas who spend more time with infants are expected to sire about 5 times more babies.

Québec’s fashion police: A century of telling women what not to wear

Donica Belisle, University of Regina

Powerful forces in Québec have long kept tabs on women's dress codes, and therefore women's bodies.

Nearly all sexual harassment at work goes unreported – and those who do report often see zero benefit

Carly McCann, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Donald T. Tomaskovic-Devey, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Two-thirds of people who report workplace sexual harassment say they lost their jobs or are retaliated against in other ways. Most never receive any money.

The ‘gilets jaunes’ movement is not a Facebook revolution

Jen Schradie, Sciences Po – USPC

There’s an orderly fashion to so-called disruptive "manifestations", as they’re called in French. But the "gilets jaunes" didn’t follow the rules. So who exactly broke the rules?

The road to Brexit: how euroscepticism tore the Conservative Party apart from within

Chris Stafford, University of Nottingham

Looking back, it's a wonder the party is still together after years of arguing about this issue.