Who doesn't love the holidays!?  Well, quite frankly tons of people are a lil' bah-humbug when it comes to "the most wonderful time of the year."  Family issues, stress, and even depression seem to surround the holidays like bad fruitcake.  C.S. Lewis writes in one of his essays concerning the commercial racket surrounding Christmas: the RUSH distracts the mind from sacred things.  His main point is that Christmas has become a sort of industry, rather than a time of merry-making (the old man Brit. term for celebration).  Whether its getting gifts from people you feel obligated to "return the favor" or worrying over what you will get for all 200,000 facebook "friends," the crowded marketplace (even when the economy is not so great) can sap the Christmas spirit out of anyone. 

By the way, isn't it interesting the way our culture has HIGHJACKED the phrase "Christmas Spirit."  You literally can't watch one movie or t.v. show that doesn't neuter this phrase!  Making "it" into some vague feeling or sense of warm fuzzies that you could get from hot apple cider - we have missed it completely!  Look, if Christmas today has nothing to do with that 1st Christmas then what real reason do we have to celebrate and make merry?  If Jesus was not born in order to take on Himself all our restlessness (including every reason we have not to celebrate) then why does anyone kid themselves with thinking that they can justify the other 11 months of the year with a few gifts, a food basket, or a pinch of "good deeds."  If that encompasses the Christmas spirit, they can keep it.  Give me Jesus this Christmas, seriously... because I want everything else, but none of that can make me right and make me merry!