Want to know the best Christmas present you can give your family?

You can save them a trip to the emergency room on your account. Or the local jail.

Holiday binge drinking - the key word here is "binge" - can cause no end of trouble for the bingers as well as for the folks whose lives they haphazardly touch.

Egg nog, mulled wine, champagne punch, turkey and pumpkin pie - they're all symbols of potential holiday excess. Not to say that moderate drinking doesn't have a place in our lives - it can relieve stress, loneliness and make challenging in-laws more tolerable.

But ask an ER doc who it is that walks into his clinic during the Christmas season, and you'll hear the following.

According to Dr. Steven Malek, a Kootenai Health 25-year emergency department physician, "We end up seeing mostly intoxicated people who've been involved with drunk driving, auto accidents, altercations and severe depressions. One of the biggest risks of this kind of drinking is poor decision-making."

And one of the more extreme outcomes of excess drinking can be alcohol poisoning, the result of slamming back a lot of liquor in a short time.

"Alcohol poisoning puts breathing and respiration at risk," Malek said. "It's intoxication to the point where it affects body functions like breathing and the gag reflex - your gag reflex is what protects you from vomiting and later aspirating your vomit.

"Alcohol intoxication also affects your ability to regulate your body temperature. If people have been drinking and partying outdoors, they can be more susceptible to hypothermia."

Dr. Harold Preiksaitis, a gastroenterologist at Kootenai Clinic said, "There are definitely some impacts from binge drinking on the gastrointestinal system, but a single night of binge drinking is not going to damage your liver significantly. Unless you combine it with other hepatotoxins such as anti-inflammatories (NSAIDS) or acetaminophen, your liver will be relatively unscathed. For people with established liver disease, however, combining NSAIDS with alcohol is always going to be a bad idea.

And there are other GI problems. The pancreas, for one.

"If someone has a genetic predisposition to pancreatitis, even a modest amount of alcoholic intake could bring it on," Preiksaitis said. "An excessive amount can lead to acute pancreatitis and this can be extremely miserable and painful. It can also lead to prolonged hospitalization.

"When you're talking about alcohol poisoning with respect to the GI tract, the nausea and vomiting can produce a gastritis, which could involve a tear in the lining of the stomach.

"Alcohol is a toxin and when you apply it to the stomach mucosa acutely, it can cause damage -- the higher the potency, the more the damage - and you can get an actual burn there. If you "chase" that burn with food and water, the stomach will tend to eject them. It's like a skin burn."

Like pancreatitis, gastritis hurts.

And remember to think about your heart during this jolly season. According to the Mayo Clinic, "Drinking too much alcohol can affect the electrical impulses in your heart and increase the chance of developing atrial fibrillation. In fact, development of atrial fibrillation after an episode of heavy drinking is sometimes called "Holiday Heart Syndrome."

People with atrial fibrillation can experience some wild and crazy heartbeats that just might get them a ticket to the emergency room.

In terms of the nervous system's response to excessive drinking, the poor decision-making that Malek referred to can result in having unprotected sex as well as getting involved in non-vehicular accidents such as tripping over furniture and falling off ladders.

Think long and hard before you mix alcohol with drugs - prescription and otherwise. This combination not only will lower inhibitions, it can also be deadly.

According to Malek, moderate drinkers who binge are often unaware of the consequences of their increased alcoholic consumption. It's good to know in advance that your local saloonkeeper is more likely to pour you an ounce-and-a-half shot than is your Uncle Justin, who considers himself the free-pour champion of Kootenai County.

Idaho State Patrol offers this sobering statistic: 39.7 percent of all Idaho vehicular fatalities in 2012 involved impaired drivers.

"If you drink at all, stay away from cars and the person who signs your paycheck," Malek said.

And one last word to the wise: Before you take your first drink, remember your last hangover.