Most cruise lines offer special packages that cruise over Christmas and New Year's, typically with an upcharge that reflects some of the extra festivities that passengers will experience. Many holiday cruises offer special meals, decorations, and parties to commemorate Christmas and New Year's Eve, and the fare reflects this.

Holiday cruises sell out early, so if you want to try this next year, make your decisions as early as you can. In fact, it might be good timing now to book for the 2008 Christmas cruise!

While the cruise lines do an outstanding job of making the voyage as festive as possible, the fact is that Christmas on a cruise ship is just not a traditional experience. Particularly in the Caribbean, the warm weather, palm trees, and pristine beaches just don't seem to match the mood of the season. For that reason, cruise passengers for the holidays should make certain mental as well as physical preparations.

First, be flexible. If you have a Christmas card holiday in mind, a cruise vacation may make you feel like you're missing Christmas. You need to have a sense of adventure and a desire to create new traditions and seek new experiences.

Second, take some Christmas with you. Whether you're traveling with one person or a group, take along some gift-wrapped presents to exchange on the big day. If your family always had certain holiday traditions (such as a midnight snack on Christmas eve or chocolate candy on Christmas day or opening stockings stuffed with presents early in the morning) you might be able to figure out a way to "import" that to the cruise. This will help you merge the traditional Christmas with the cruise Christmas.

Third, you need to ponder for a moment the real meaning of the holidays for you. Whether it's Christmas, Hanukkah, or New Year's Eve, holidays are holidays for a reason. Think about what they mean to you and allow the cruise to complement that.

For example, New Year's Eve may be a time when you enjoy getting dressed up for big parties and when you like to relax and reflect on the year gone by. Great, you can do that (and more) on a cruise ship.

Get in the party mood. The crew on your ship is working this holiday and that can be hard thing. Many crew members have long-term contracts and don't see their families or native countries for months at a time. They are tasked with creating a festive mood for you; do them a favor, reciprocate. Be generous with your tips and your thank-yous.

Holiday cruises work out well in situations where you can cruise with your family (like a combination reunion-Christmas cruise) or in situations where you feel like you can't face a traditional holiday. If you're recently divorced or widowed or find yourself in a situation where you can get some time off but can't (or don't want to) go home, a cruise is a great solution.

Talk to your cruise line about what sorts of activities are planned and if you might need special attire. Many cruises offer formal or lavish holiday type events, so you may need to bring evening clothes (or perhaps more than one set of formal wear).

If you've grown up in a cold climate and plan on spending Christmas or New Year's in the Carribean or other warm-water destinations, be prepared for a jolt. Even if you know it's going to be warm, even if you think you'll love the fact that it's warm, even if you think you don't care that it's warm.

Even people who grow up in warm climates will tell you that it is an odd experience to watch an 80-degree breeze ripple the tinsel on the Christmas tree and how odd it feels to hum along to carols in your bathing suit. It may sound absolutely delicious right now to imagine you could be out sunbathing next Christmas Day, but beware. If it really happens, you are going to have a very weird "dis-connect" sensation.

Be prepared for this by making sure you do get some familiar holiday traditions worked into your cruise vacation.

While last-minute cruising is a bit of an art form (and can be a good way to save a few bucks on a great cruise), it hardly ever applies to holiday cruising. It really is a good time right now to plan a cruise for next year's holiday.

Why so early? Well, for one thing, holiday cruises book up early. Some people have literally made a Christmas or New Year's cruise a tradition. And cruises are getting increasingly popular in general, so holiday cruising is only going to see increasing demand.

The other reason is that you will save money but have lots of choices. Most cruise lines are very open-handed with two types of passengers and can offer some nice deals: those who book early and those who book very, very late. The late-comers are really just filling up space that would have gone empty otherwise. Late-comers can get deals, but they never get a choice. You pretty much have to take what you can get.

On the other hand, most cruise lines are very generous to early birds. It's good business. The theory is that if the cruise ship can sell out far in advance, the cruise company will not have to scramble to sell fares at the last minute ... less advertising, less promotion, less last-minute discounting frenzy. It helps them to encourage passengers to book early, so they encourage you the best way they know. They offer discounts.

Don't expect massive discounts by booking early. But you can probably land a pretty good deal. One thing that most cruise lines will do for people who book cruises months ahead of time--they will work in some upgrades. You may be able to upgrade your stateroom or get some on-board credits as well as a less-than-rack-rate passage.

Think it's really too early to start planning next year's holiday cruise? Go online and look at the cruise companies. They all have announced their schedules for 2008, some far beyond that.

Maybe next year you can get a suntan for Christmas!