Sarah Ditum hits the nail on the head in an essay about Christmas on the Guardian website:
Christmas, a time of being patronisingly berated for your failure to grasp the real meaning of the season. If it hasn’t happened to you in some form by the 24th, you might as well knock down the tree and use the cinnamon-scented candle to set fire to your wreath: you’re just not having a proper Noël without a bit of sanctimony to spice the joyeux. …
I don’t think your gifts have to be particularly lavish or spectacular.
But they are essential, and not just to Christmas but to the foundations of human civilisation. Think about this: out of all the animals to have evolved, humans are the only ones to understand and practise generosity. Sure, some species ritually offer prey to a potential mate, but as anthopologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy says, “humans stand out for their chronic readiness to exchange small favours and give gifts”. …
If Christmas is all about God becoming man – one entity living and feeling as another – then it’s the ultimate celebration of intersubjectivity, the trait that induces our special powers of present-giving. So slap on the bows and write out the name tags with a clear conscience: you’re not just embodying the real real meaning of Christmas with every selection box you hand out – your ability to give is the beating heart of humanity.
Ditum expresses in scholarly terms a complaint about moralizing Christmas killjoys I made last year in explaining my ambivalence about Advent Conspiracy. Today’s Daily Episcopalian touches on a similar theme.