While I don't want to send all you girls out there into a panic, I do want to bring to mind the all too real phenomenon of date rape drugs.

While it happens throughout the year, all over the world, it's at this time of year that we party the hardest and the scum of the earth have a much larger pool of victims to choose from.

Police in Chelmsford, UK, for example, recently carried out a test in a nightclub as part of a crackdown on date rape. They tested the residue in 200 drinks and found that one-in-25 contained unexplainable substances and statistics have shown that date rape has gone up 60 per cent in the last two years and is still rising.

Whether you're staying here for the holidays or going home to party with your friends and loved ones, bear in mind that almost everyone believes it could never happen to them and yet still the statistics keep rising.

Follow these few simple rules and you can go out and celebrate to your heart's content.

Be just as careful at house parties as you would be in a public place. You can never know everyone around you and in any case, most victims of rape are at the very least acquainted with their attacker.

Never take a drink from anyone you don't know well and trust. Make sure you have seen the drink being poured or opened and know for certain it can't have been messed with before it reaches you. If someone offers to buy you a drink, go with them to the bar so you can take the drink directly from the barman himself.

Never let your drink out of your sight. If you need to go to the bathroom, take it with you or finish it off before you go and order a fresh one when you come back.

Keep your hand over the top of your glass when you're not drinking from it to make it more difficult for someone to slip anything into it or drink from a bottle or can with a straw where it's harder for anything to get in.

Don't risk drinking something that looks or tastes even remotely suspicious - trust your instincts as they're usually right.

If you see someone pouring something into anyone's drink, don't assume it's just another shot of something. Let the person know there's something extra in their drink. It's far easier to apologise than live with the consequences of not warning someone that later turn out to be a victim.

Leave your bank and credit cards at home as people under the influence of date rape drugs have been known to reveal their pin numbers when asked and as much as assault is the first thing you want to protect yourself from, the last thing you need is to have your money stolen too.

Armed with the above information should greatly reduce any chance of anything happening to you and you should be more than well equipped to avoid the pitfalls of party central.