Feeling Christmassy

I have had several people ask me lately if I'm feeling "christmassy". I guess I'm not sure what that means - that I'm warm with eggnoggy goodness? That I am aglow with the delights of Christmas lights and red and green tchotchkes? Blow-up snowmen? Life-size snowglobes? Swooning with the pleasures of lines at the post office and people crammed en masse at every store I enter? Is anyone else enjoying this?
I am not a scrooge. I am not a grinch. But I dislike what Martha Stewart has wrought on the holiday we call Christmas - perfect snowflake ornaments, perfect gifts to give, three-story gingerbread houses, piles of fluffy homeade Christmas candy to give your neighbors. And I also dislike what seems to be an insidious marketing scheme this year by certain franchises - the suggestions in their catalogs on what to give your babysitter, your paperboy, your garbageman, your postman, your dogwalker, and apparently anyone you've met on the street in the past year. Ouch! I am not rich. I do not aim to EVER be rich. I can't afford to buy all of these people gifts. Also - why is it expected that I should give all of my friends and acquaintances gifts? Since when is that a thing? Am I tying myself to all kinds of financial obligations every time I make a new friend, or my children make any friends? Well why not MAKE a bunch of homeade gifts to give out - ding ding ding, still expensive AND my time is quite well spent above and beyond making crafts and candies for everyone who lives within a mile's vicinity.
How to get out of this conundrum? Well I think it requires some positioning. Positioning among greater goods. What is this season for? It is for celebrating, with friends and family, the wonder, the beauty, the tenderness of the nativity. It is also for giving. Giving to those we care about and, hopefully, to the needy. Let's just take it down a notch: After we've purchased or made gifts for our family and good friends, let's just call it good, and wish each other a Merry Christmas with a warm smile and a handshake or hug. Then, let's volunteer, and give some money to charity.