What bothers me is the intense social and peer group pressure on folks to spend spend spend. Many people spend soooo much they spend the next 6-8 months trying to pay off the credit cards and loans. Many people let other more important things, such as health care, home maintenance, etc., slide so they can buy presents. When I lived in Europe the people there were absolutely shocked at how much of our income Americans spent on presents (Christmas and birthdays and weddings and going aways and Easter and....well you get the idea). Most concerning is how wasteful and worthless most of these gifts really are. Giving for the sake of giving to the point of real pain. I don't think this is in the spirit of most of the holidays--I think it is marketing by amoral companies and sales departments.