my mum is now trained, this year i will not get the piano i want but maybe new specs, last year i got a kick ass book of poster art that i wanted, she got off cheap last year
I just view it more or less the same way I view Valentines in that how good it is and in what way is entirely up to each individual person.
But specifically, the way I view Christmas is the way I buy gifts. I decide what I want for people before ever leaving the house to buy anything. Anytime I don't follow this rule is guaranteed to have me buy something for the sake of buying something, and those gifts almost always suck.
Despite it being socially expected to buy gifts, I always try to get things that the person will remember, that they would've always liked to buy themselves - like something they just never wanted to spoil themselves with or maybe even never realized they wanted (like last year where I bought Cosby tickets for my dad, someone who has listened to Cosby since he was a kid but never even considered seeing him live - and he loved it).
Anyway, it's to each their own, but I find that if you can change the reason why you're buying the gift to something beyond "just because its Christmas" then it usually ends up being something a lot more important.
