More Than a hundred years ago, Charles Dickens wrote a response to your blog entry – How true it is today!

“There are many things from which I might have derived good by which I have not profited, I dare say,” returned the nephew, “Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas-time, when it has come round-apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that-as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!”
……
“Business!” cried the Ghost [of Marley], wringing his hands again. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!” (Stave One)

Interesting parallel.

Nice insight into the inner-workings of your head. I was expecting a same-old, same-old rant on the commercialization on Christmas. I appreciated your thoughts on looking out for your nurse.

I talked to Kathie Lee Gifford not that long ago (formerly of Regis and Kathy Lee) and she mentioned how her family finds a family that’s struggling and they spend the money that they used to spend on useless junk helping that family. I think if more of us directed our energy on doing some good of the world instead of simply shopping our brains out and collecting stuff we don’t need, there would be more joy in Christmas. Of course, it’s still there if you want to find it.

In a recent article in the NY Times, Maureen Dowd expresses a similar sentiment, and my favorite part is the last paragraph:
“Are you willing … to own, that probably the only good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life; to close your book of complaints against the management of the universe and look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness … to make a grave for your ugly thoughts and a garden for your kindly feelings …? Then you can keep Christmas.””

See the entire article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/26/opinion/26dowd.html?em&ex=1198904400&en=487072b8110b865a&ei=5087

My blog is less than a month old and it’s not really up and running yet, but I wrote a post titled “Why I Hate Christmas” regarding the excessive commercialization of this holiday, or our obsession with “buying stupid junk,” as you might put it. My link goes directly to this post.