The holidays are right around the corner, which means the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are revving up for a marathon of game days, gatherings and special, seasonal performances.

“We’ve been so busy, and now we’re about to get into our really, really busy season,” says DCC star Marissa Phillips, 25. She tells PEOPLE that things really start to kick up the weekend before Thanksgiving, when the squad starts putting on Christmas performances every Friday and Saturday.

“It’s just really sweet, because a lot of people will bring their kids and their families and get all dressed up and get hot cocoa. That sort of thing,” the veteran NFL cheerleader explains of the 30-minute shows, which are hosted at the Dallas Cowboys’ headquarters, The Star.

Each Christmas show may be “really fast,” but Phillips says they pull out all the stops for fans attending. There’s festive lighting and three costume changes, and they perform alternative choreography for some of their most iconic routines, like the “Thunderstruck” dance.

“If we have a game on Sunday or a game on Thursday for Thanksgiving, that can be really busy. We just have to be really prepared and make sure we know all of our parts,” she adds. “It’s a very, very tiring show and a lot of compartmentalization. But you just get into your muscle memory and turn your brain on a little bit and it’s really fun.”

The lifelong dancer — who works a day job in accounting — explains that the regular NFL season mainly revolves around Sunday only. From her perspective, the biggest winter-time adjustment is having the work week extended into the weekends as well.

“You really just have to make sure you’re on top of cooking meals for yourself and … honestly, probably not scheduling any appointments for the entire month of November and December,” says Phillips, who appears in the hit Netflix series America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.

Part of preparing means blocking out time to rest, too. Given their show-stopping talent and seemingly endless supply of cheer, one may think the boot-wearing women are super-human, but the holidays humble them just like anyone else. Phillips says rest days are crucial for maintaining good health and fighting off seasonal illness.

There are times when the DCC members don’t know when their next “secured off-day” will be, but if they do have an idea, Phillips says that time is best used to recuperate.

“Unfortunately, you do have to saying no to things that you want to do [with] friends or family. You have to make sure you have time to actually sit down and not do anything for a second, if you can,” Phillips tells PEOPLE.

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Between the end of November and the end of December, each Cowboys cheerleader has to direct all of her energy toward the weekend, because once it arrives, “it is just go, go, go,” Phillips notes.