My wife and I decided to step away from the commercialism of Christmas several years ago. It's been great. We don't buy presents for anyone, and no one buys presents for us. We have a few close friends with whom we exchange home-made items or baked goods. None of the silly spending frenzy, and we don't have to go into malls or stores at all during the last two months of the year. Since I don't listen to commercial radio, or watch much TV beyond Buffy, I am able to pretty much able to ignore the whole Christmas in October and November phenomenon. Spending the Christmas season without being frantic is so much nicer. We have a few albums of traditional and/or historical Christmas music that we start playing in mid-December -- we don't even have to hear any of the endless repititions of the 25 most popular Christmas songs. The only reason I am even thinking about Christmas at all yet is because we booked three concerts where we are supposed to play traditional and/or historical Christmas music and we have to start practicing.

John