I don’t think it matters about the commercialization. It is like anything else. You pay attention to what matters to you and ignore what doesn’t. If you get all hyped up about the gift giving and that detracts from your enjoyment and what you feel is the deeper meaning of the holiday you have only yourself to blame. I have a large family and while growing up we had a tight budget. In spite of that my parents gave us a fixed amount to spend on gifts for our siblings and for them. We loved going to the store and trying to pick the thing that would really make each other happy. We loved the surprise of it. We had little secret gift wrapping days when behind closed doors we wrapped up all those top secret presents and anticipated the enjoyment we would bring by giving our gifts.
My parents wer very religious but not all preachy about it. We would celebrate on Christmas Eve by going out to dinner. That was a very special treat for us in itself. Somehow my Dad would always have something to do before we left and we would be sitting in the car waiting for him. Sometimes we would go out driving around the neighborhood to look at the lights. When we came back from dinner we all knew Santa had come! My parents would try to hold us back a little just to torture us. Then they would let us all run pell mell down the stairs to see our presents under the tree. They didn’t wrap anything so it was a little pile of toys for each of us. We liked getting simple things like new art supplies and stuff like that. After we saw what Santa had brought it was time for family gifts. In a mad frenzy we would tear all the wrapping paper off of our gifts. We would toss them all over the room to each other! Here’s one for you and here’s one for you! We would run over to each other and give hugs and kisses.
Now I ask you, is this what we meant by over commercializing Christmas? Isn’t part of it about the joy of giving? Now that we are older and all have children and in laws it got too hard to buy a present for everyone. Now we only give presents to the kids. I had a hard time letting go of buying presnets for my nieces when they got to about 18. I wanted to keep buying them things!
After present opening if we weren’t too tired we liked to go to Midnight mass. Midnight mass had a special mystique about it. If we were too tired we went to mass in the morning.
I don’t think it matters what other people do to celebrate Christmas. If they want to spend Christmas Eve at the mall running around buying last minute gifts they will. If they want to stand in line all day for Black Friday specials they will. No one forces you to commercialize Christmas. The merchants have a business and want to extend the selling season. They will do whatever they think it takes to get people in the stores. But I don’t think it can interfere with the true meaning and spirit of Christmas unless you let it.
I also don’t find it a problem if someone wants to celebrate Christmas who doesn’t believe in Christ. It has become a cultural tradition. If it’s all about Santa Claus and Rudolf to them I say great! We each will celebrate in our own way. I like the feeling that there are so many people celebrating along with me even if they don’t believe what I believe.