“Congratulations!”

You type the word confidently, then hesitate. Is it too unoriginal? Too phony? Too extreme?

So goes one of the holiday season’s newest etiquette dances.

Marriage proposals and baby announcements often dominate December, much to the chagrin of those of us who are still unmarried and childless. Sorry, mom.

Anyway, those announcements now come with a new facet: the Facebook reveal.

If you’re a social media user who’s lucky enough to post a big announcement, do a brief happy dance -- assuming you’re not lying about your engagement or pregnancy announcement.

Believe it or not, it’s easy to destroy your moment in the spotlight.

That’s why a straightforward approach usually works best. If you’re pregnant, don’t announce the news with a cryptic poem tracing cultural approaches to motherhood.

If you’re engaged, don’t write five jumbled sentences about cleaning your ring finger.

While this should go without saying, real-life experience compels me to remind you that the people in your inner circle do not want to learn about your life milestones on Facebook.

Make the obligatory phone calls before changing your Facebook status. Or else.

And trust me: In the Facebook universe, innocent sharing can transform into conceited gloating in three seconds.

So it’s best to leave your status update at “I’m so happy I’m pregnant,” rather than

“I’m so happy I’m pregnant and I have such a better life than all my friends.”

With that, I’ll shift my attention to the rest of us.

Upon reading one of the aforementioned happy status updates, your first instinct might be to roll your eyes or punch a hole in a wall. Naturally, those behaviors shouldn’t transfer to the response you write on Facebook.

In cases of casual acquaintances, simply “liking” the post or typing “congratulations” should be sufficient.

The dilemma comes when a Facebook friend with whom you haven’t seriously corresponded announces a life milestone. I encountered the situation when someone from my high school class recently announced her engagement.

We talked maybe twice in high school, and had no Facebook communication beyond friend request approval. But there she was, announcing her upcoming wedding.

If I typed “congratulations,” it could sound phony -- since I have no personal investment in her life, let alone her romantic relationship. But if I ignored the news, I could appear insensitive.

So I acknowledged the announcement with a simple “like” -- and hoped that if I ever posted a major life update, she’d do the same.