Hazardous conditions ahead!

Whether it’s rushing around finding last-minute gifts, dodging fellow shoppers and black ice patches, or averting the dreaded fiscal cliff, the holiday season is typically very hectic for everyone.

And then there’s the Mayan apocalypse.

Doomsayers — political, cultural or nutcase — will salivate at a month peppered with catastrophes.

If that’s not enough, RaptureReady.com has been tabulating its “Rapture Index,” and it’s a bad year for rapture conditions. Just saying.

So while Democrats and Republicans bicker over whose sparsely detailed plan is somewhat effective at chipping away the national deficit, and crazed parents fight over the last Furby, remember what’s really important.

Family. Friends. Relationships.

Shockwaves ripped through the Kansas City Chiefs’ team facilities when Jovan Belcher, a linebacker, took his own life shortly after murdering his girlfriend.

“When you ask someone how they’re doing, do you really mean it? When you answer someone back how you’re doing, are you really telling the truth?” said quarterback Brady Quinn, after the Chiefs’ game on Sunday.

The NFL and most of the nation were stunned by the news, but it exemplifies, to us, what’s so wrong about the holiday season.

Halfheartedly buying a gift card for a family member, friend or coworker means nothing. No true good comes from a gift bag filled with scented candles and chocolates.

This is all temporary.

Perhaps Congress will reach an amicable solution and extend the Bush-era tax cuts, and maybe the world won’t come to an end on Dec. 21.

But will the overwhelming pain and sorrow secretly eating away at one of your relatives or friends really be mitigated by a measly piece of jewelry?

This holiday season, give gifts but also contribute sincere compassion to those who need it most.