Like I give a shit what Wolfgang or Ron Davies thinks? Sure. If that delusion makes you boys feel better...

Can someone cite a source for this (apparently) widespread belief amongst some people here that the capitalist consumption holidays have deep roots in the ancient past of someone's ancestors?

There hardly anything communal about this holiday in the US. OK, going to church. But other than that, this is a Norman Rockwell middle class delusion of happiness and gaiety and warm fuzzy feelings like the commercials on tv with the tree and the fireplace and the husband and wife and two beautiful usually white children with blond hair and blue eyes. In that sense Martin is correct.

It is a nuclear family worshipping holiday as well. It is often described as being "all about family". So is it any surprise that people who don't center their lives around a nuclear family of origin or of their own, aren't that into this holiday?

And I still say, there must be some societal factor that makes Christmas Day the deadliest day of the year for Americans. We just don't know what it is yet.

I guess all of you want to discuss the one article on holiday deaths, and not the one on deaths related to workplace deadlines? I acutally found that one to be the more interesting of the two.