Paris Saint-Germain guaranteed they will go into the winter break as Ligue 1 leaders after beating 10-man Brest on Friday, the capital city club's fourth successive win.
PSG are three points ahead of Lyon and Marseille, but their superior goal difference of 24, compared to 13 and three respectively for their title rivals, will allow them to go into 2013 in pole position.
However, Carlo Ancelotti's side will not be getting carried away by their high-flying status -- 12 months ago they also led the way at Christmas only to see Montpellier take the title in May.
"We will have a good holiday because we are top of the table," said Ancelotti.
"It was another good performance. It wasn't easy because of the pitch and the opponents. It confirmed that we are in a good moment."
They were aided in their cause on Friday when Brest had Abdou Sissoko, the little brother of PSG's Mohamed, red-carded after half an hour for a bruising tackle on Ezequiel Lavezzi.
However, it wasn't until the second half that PSG took advantage of their numerical superiority.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic opened the scoring after 55 minutes with his 18th league goal of the season, finishing off a centre from Christophe Jallet.
Kevin Gameiro added the second in the 73rd minute with his fifth goal of the campaign just minutes after coming on as a substitute.
Bernard Mendy then put through his own goal in the second minute of stoppage time.
