If Christmas were celebrated as a religious holiday--celebration of the birth of the Messiah--rather than an opportunity for selling, there would be few Christmas carols sung or cards sent until Christmas day and many sung/sent for weeks afterwards!   When someone has a new baby, there may be a shower or two, but most of the cards and rejoicing come after the birth.  We don't have months of promotions for the new baby and then stop all celebration by 2PM on the day of his/her birth!

With Christmas in our time, though, even the churches refrain from doing "Christmas carols" after Christmas day (even when Dec. 26 is a Sunday) and make little mention of Jesus's birth except during the weeks preceding Christmas.   Probably unwittingly, the churches themselves have bought into the Madison Ave. timetable -- decorate, do pageants, sing, have parties and talk about  "Christmas" for weeks prior to and including Christmas Eve, and then view the whole thing as "sooo last week!" as soon as it's Dec. 25 or 26th.