Bah Humbug!

I'm sorry to start this so early, but I have to see if anyone else looks forward to the upcoming holidays and thinks.... WHY? Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love Christmas. I do, mainly because we get to see all of our family that we see about once a year, little kids are always excited, lots of good food, etc. However, I hate, hate hate hate how commercial this holiday becomes. First it's the glitz and glam of decor, then baking like there's no tomorrow (or buying if you don't bake), then you want to give your kids the best Christmas ever, then you've been wanting this BIG purchase for a long time now, and your spouse has been wanting 6 BIGGER purchases for even longer, then you start recieving gifts from everyone... which means that the good festive Christmas lover that you are would have plenty of awesome gifts to throw back in return, then there are always those people that go waaaayy over the top and buy large extravagant gifts for you, which is very nice... but then you're thinking, what could I possibly get them that would be half as great and still fit in my budget? And the answer to that is usually... nothing. When all is said and done, you've got a house full of things that will be boxed away and soon forgotten until next year around the same time.

I wish I could do something this year that completely eliminated this twisted view of what Christmas is really supposed to be about. I've heard of families giving up their Christmas to give to a needy family. I have a friend that does fund raisers for different charitys during Christmas time. I want this Christmas to be different and less stressful than what I'm anticipating.

Any suggestions?