Hour-billers, freelancers suffering the anti-holiday season

One of my friends Twittered Monday that should would have to work over 10 hours each day -- including Christmas -- for the rest of the month in order to make her billable hours quota for the year. Meanwhile, I'm typing as fast as I can to make my December freelancing commitments. I had planned to spend Christmas Eve sewing dress-up costumes for my boys and fancy potholders for my sisters, but now I'm wondering if I should spend the day typing instead.

It's the anti-holiday season for freelancers and professionals who must bill hours. While the rest of you are using up your vacation time and relaxing in the 10 days of few meetings and even fewer cars in the office parking lot between last weekend and January 1st, we're stocking up on coffee and chocolate to fuel late-night work marathons.

I won't complain -- I picked this lifestyle. But it's a cautionary tale for me next year (perhaps I should hire a nanny for the first two weeks of December?) and I'd love to hear if other freelancers have strategies on how to reduce your dependence on end-of-the-year catchup. How do you avoid the freelancing anti-holiday season?