Now is the time to think about and prepare nails to look beautiful serving a holiday meal or unwrapping a gift. Avoid the high cost of fake nails and the time it takes to have them done professionally.  Preparing your nails now will keep you from being tempted to use glue on nails and have them fall off into food!

The first thing to do is to trim nails to a uniform length. Trimming nails will remove damage and jagged edges. Even short nails at a uniform length are more attractive than uneven longer nails.

Smooth nail edges by gently filing them. Always move file in the same direction, avoiding the back and forth sawing motion than will weaken nail tips. Rounded nails than are slightly flat at the top are the strongest and resist breakage. Closer to a holiday event they can be filed to a more rounded and tapered shape.

Apply any cuticle and nail conditioner regularly. Lotion made for hands should be used once or twice a day so that dry damaged skin won’t distract from beautiful nails.

Strengthening nail polish will help nails resist breakage. Clear nail polish won’t stain nails and should always be the first coat. For shorter nails that might not look attractive polished, clear nail polish provides protection without drawing too much attention to nails.

This is a good time to test durability and color of nail polishes so that you don’t find out at the last minute that your choice of nail polish won’t hold up or looks very different on your nails than in the bottle.

Some supplements and a diet with adequate calcium will help nails to grow in strong and smooth.

Daily and weekly care of nails beginning now will help you to have beautiful nails to polish and show off by the holiday.