Here’s my take…
First, we have to understand that the event celebrated by Christmas was most likely in the spring, The celebration was moved to the common and happy Solstice celebrations to reduce the possibility of persecution by the early Christians. Most of the trappings are pagan in origin or relatively recent additions. Most recently, the holiday has evolved into a very commercial event.
So, in my mind, there are three events going on at once in western culture: a Christian one, a pantheist one and a commercial one.
Let’s call the commercial one, which is what we are all subjected to, Krissmuss. This features Santa Claus, shopping, reindeer, shopping, snowmen, shopping, c old weather, shopping, Currier and Ives, shopping, sappy music, movies and TV shows, shopping, decorated trees, shopping, shopping, a bogus “War on Christmas” (with its genuinely stupid, pointless and manufactured controversy of Happy Holidays vs. Merry Krissmuss and the dang your beliefs and feelings I want to make myself feel superior by saying Merry Krissmuss attitude that it fosters) and shopping. Somewhere in there are a crèche and a menorah. Oh, and shopping.
This leads to unachievable expectations, from the weather (snow for a White Krissmuss) to false memories of a simpler, happier time. The reality is it forces people to socialize with folks they often would rather not and to make nice when they don’t want to. They have to struggle with buying presents for people they don’t really know and get presents they don’t really want while acting like the Crapco Grilled Cheese Sandwich Maker ™ and another pair of tube socks will make their lives perfect. Throw in one unstable person and you have a recipe for emotional disaster.
Add the judgmental aspect of Santa’s naughty/nice list and people find themselves undeserving and having to deal with guilt, real or imagined.
The celebration and decorating part goes on for a month or more then suddenly ends. The musak starts in mid November (one local station I used to have in the car, one year started introducing Krissmuss songs on October first, yes, 1 October, the day after September ends…they still go 24-7 from Thanksgiving on).
Pity the poor people in retail…been there, done that. They are subjected to extended hours, low pay, a disrupted Thanksgiving, and a constant flow genuinely nasty people who don’t want to be buying the stuff they are buying. With the so called Black Friday Doorbuster sales, people aren’t buying gifts for others, but hording stuff for themselves. Nothing can turn a Tiny Tim into a Scrooge more easily than working in a store in December.
So, yeah, Bah, Humbug.