If only we could all have Santa’s PR agent.

This is probably the absolute last thing you want to hear, but the holiday season is a great time for developing your professional persona. I know, I know, nobody wants to do work of any kind during the holidays, but if you’re in need of a new job now, that need is still going to be there even after it stops snowing. In addition to your well-deserved time off, take a few initiatives to punch up your profile before the new year.

If there’s two things you can count on office holiday parties for, it’s networking opportunities and Joe from accounting getting drunk. Holiday events are a good opportunity to connect with people in your workplace or job sector that you may not normally have a chance to speak with. Whether you see them in person or in a video call, drop them a little line before the end of the evening. Keep it casual; “nice seeing you, happy holidays, we should chat sometime.”

If you’re the kind of person that enjoys peppering your social media with holiday photos, this can also prove beneficial. Provided your pictures don’t feature you or your loved ones in any unbecoming positions, you can use this opportunity to show off your PR skills. Pleasant, heart-warming holiday content is a great indicator of both your creative capabilities and your ability to manage a public-facing persona. Those are highly valuable skills in the connected age.

Finally, if you don’t mind spending a little money, remember that the holiday season is the shopping season. Many professional services like training programs and helpful utilities will be offering discounts on their services. You’ve probably already got a few offers in your spam folder. Get a cheap subscription to utilities that may benefit your current career path and put a holiday smile on some lonely dude in a company’s marketing department.