Tomorrow is the first day of November, which means the holiday season is almost upon us.

So, hang the Christmas lights, turn up the carols and start thinking about how you conduct yourself. Santa Claus is a comin’, and if he sees you when you’re sleeping and knows when you’re awake, then he definitely saw what you wore on Halloween and probably didn’t appreciate your behavior at Joe’s last week.

If you’re hoping for a gift or two under the tree, you probably need to clean up your act. Here are a few typical college kid behaviors that will move you straight to the naughty list, and a few things that will work in your favor when Santa’s re-counting your shenanigans.

h2. Naughty

*Stealing from your roommates:* As Thanksgiving Break approaches, you’re going to be more reluctant to stock up on necessities and consequently more likely to steal from your roomies. Even though she probably won’t notice if you use her shampoo or take a slice or two of bread, it’s rude and against the roommate code. Suck it up and head to County Market, or you’ll be on the naughty list faster than you can say, “That’s so weird, I don’t even eat sandwiches.”

*Ditching class:* Now that midterms are over, it’s very tempting to ditch out on class and easy to neglect your assignments. But, those two or three allowed absences disappear quickly. Oh and there’s that other thing you have to start thinking about — the final. If you think coal on Christmas morning is a mood-killer, see what happens when you have to retake a class.

*Inappropriate use of social media:* No one wants to read about how drunk you got last night, how hung over you are today or how you left your dignity on the floor of Kam’s. Changing your friends’ Facebook statuses to something dirty has gotten old too. And nothing is worse than the cryptic emotional tweets about how hard your life is #emo. You better hope Santa isn’t into Social Media yet, but in case he is, take a rest from these annoying updates until after New Year’s.

*Being a hot mess:* Now that we are well into the semester, there are no excuses. There’s a fine line between classy and trashy, and we’ve all seen a little too much of the latter lately. Wearing next to nothing, drinking yourself stupid and doing disgusting things on the dance floor — all not okay. Santa can see that, and so can everyone else (unfortunately for us). It’s time to get it together.

h2. Nice

*Charity work:* The holiday season brings many opportunities to give back to the community. Whether you’re helping out with a Thanksgiving food drive or donating gifts for under-privileged children, you’ll be doing a service for the C-U. And helping your case for Christmas.

*Take care of your sick friend:* As the temperature plummets and the wind picks up, the horrible experience that is Champaign winter will settle in and so will sickness. When your bff comes down with a cold, be the one to bring him a bowl of soup and Nyquil, and send him the notes from lecture. He’ll think you’re nice and so will Santa.

*Find a winter internship:* You can sit on the couch and watch re-runs of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ and ‘That 70’s Show’ all of break, or you can build up your resume and take on a winter internship. Based on how he runs his shop, Santa clearly does not look favorably on the lazy.

*Be a good guest:* Even though it’s easy to use the ‘I’m a poor college student who drinks Busch light and Burnette’s every weekend’ excuse, it’s bad manners to show up to a party empty handed. It really doesn’t take too much effort to make some sort of appetizer or dessert, and showing your gratitude to the host is a great way to give yourself an edge when Santa is checking over his list.

_Samantha is a senior in Media._