Move on to some new material or whatever it is you are searching for. I get tired of the complaining. Its not like its costing you anything.

True, not much financial advice in this article but I hope people remember that getting your financial house in order is a means to an end and not the end itself.

For young children, a year is a very long time, and a month is a long time. Celebrating something once a month while children are very young isn’t going to jade them. Consider that for the four-year-old, a year is a quarter of their entire lifetime.

Surely you’re speaking in hyperbole when you say it takes “hours” to accomplish this small task, but there are certainly crisper and more effective ways of communicating the same sentiment (valuing time with family, etc.).

Trent’s phoning it in at this point. TSD desperately needs guest writers or a co-blogger.

I will not be reading a “how to live” advice blog.

I’m being facetious, but only sort of.

I think Trent has a good point here that even goes beyond spending quality time with family. A lot of what we think of as “Christmas magic” (many Christmas songs, decorations, customs, etc.) draws on traditions and cultures that we more or less ignore the rest of the year, but there’s no reason we have to. If you like “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” (just to pick one), there are lots more songs from the same tradition that have a similar feel, but that aren’t about Christmas. You can delve into them and learn them and enjoy that kind of music all year round.

Making Christmas an enjoyable time without focusing on expensive gifts — I’m definitely with you there.

I have a lot of Christmas traditions that I really enjoy and look forward to. Baking (eating), painting and crafting, the annual chinese-food-under-the-tree party, etc. I love Christmas.

Where you lose me is when you turn this post into another how-everybody-should-live diatribe. If every day is special, than no day is special (thanks, Kevin!). I don’t get the conclusion you make and honestly, I don’t choose to live my life in the same way you do. Are you saying that those family values you promote are a good way to keep yourself from spending unnecessary money? I suppose you’re right. But it seems like an odd way to make that point.

This post is almost like a stream of consciousness rather than a post designed to make a specific point.

I happen to love Christmas- from Halloween through – New Years. But if saccharin sentiment and omnipresent harassment toward consumerist gluttony rubs you the wrong way, then this time of year has got to be unbearable!

I try to finish my shopping before the start of the school year, so I can just sit back and enjoy the movies, the smells, the lights, make some handmade gifts, and not participate in mall madness.

Oh, and I would just like to acknowledge that there are other holidays than the Christian one. The omission was weird.

I agree that the “once a year” ritual makes it all the more special. And you know what? Setting up for holidays is fun, but a LOT of work! I would not want to do it every month at all- I’d burn out. I have an amazing hubby who splits household work evenly, but for most women I know- the holidays is a double-shift.

He seems to be gradually shifting his focus to giving more general “how to live” advice. This may end up being the right course, but he has a long way to go before he’s good at it. Right now, articles such as this one say nothing that hasn’t been said many times before.