All I want for Christmas

While most of the year I'm pretty good about keeping unnecessary spending to a minimum, Christmas tends to be a time of great temptation. When Heather suggested we try a present-free Christmas, I felt a certain tightening in my stomach. After all, part of giving presents is about taking part in the polite niceties of society. And who doesn't like getting presents?

I haven't resolved the dilemma yet, but it was interesting to read this op-ed piece in the New York Times. It starts out describing a conservative effort to re-introduce "Christmas" as the vocabulary of choice. No Holiday trees, in other words.

But further down it's reassuring to learn that Christmas didn't always look like this--that in fact the Puritans & Pilgrims hated it, and maybe it's a good idea for some of the commercialism to be separated from the religion underlying it. Some food for thought.