Adumbrodeus, Christmas is Christmas - who gives a flying ****.
It helps the economy, everyone's happier, eggnog is aflowin', PEOPLE SINGING IN PUBLIC (such a wondrous thing to see..man, everyone in a large public place singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is like..what!), and people give gifts because it's fun to do. You can also place Jesus's importance on it, but you don't need to do that to celebrate Christmas.
Christmas is about spreading good cheer and good will towards men (in physical form - gifts - and otherwise).
If you don't like being happy, shut the hell up and go elsewhere ^___^
I think it's obvious that the commercialism attached to it does not make me happy at all. It does quite the opposite for me.
What makes me happy is that brief shinning couple of hours on Christmas night that I get to spend with my family and close friends. Sure, the presents are nice (both giving and receiving), but was it really worth all the aggravation and preparation I had to go through in order to purchase them, and forcing others to do the same for me?
Not really. Christmas has always been that way for me, just those couple of hours of good cheer with a horrible, stress-filled lead-up. All too often the stress of preparing for Christmas bleeds into that period as well, ruining the night with petty squabbles that would've been avoided if the day had not become so commercialized.
Again, I'm far from alone in this opinion of the holiday (think about Festivus, even though it was started as part of a TV show, it's gaining strength because people are fed up with the commercialization of Christmas).
My parents depended on me a lot, so Christmas didn't mean presents for me, it meant constantly working and mom and dad getting incredibly stressed. Truthfully, once people reach a certain age, they seem to take my view, work and stress.
Sure, it's great for (most) kiddies, and people at to a certain age (usually mid-twenties), but once you get past that point you really can't wait for Christmas to be over.
