Am I a Scrooge?

This specific time of year, the first week in December, I am a wicked scrooge. For me, Christmas doesn't typically feel like Christmas until a day or two before Christmas Eve.

This is the weekend where I bring the Christmas decorations up from the basement. By my mood you'd think that Christmas was a time of beatings and hate mongering.

"Why do we need so many decorations?" I'd murmur alone.

"Only 20 more trips before I'm done!" I'd say sarcastically.

Now, I know that I act like a baby when I have to do these things. I really do. But God do I hate the endless boxes and the amount of work that Christmas causes.

My job, beyond bringing the decorations up from the basement, is to decorate the outside of the house. Kim decorates the inside of the house which I think we would both agree is much more work.

Until this year, we bought wreaths for each of the upstairs and downstairs front facing windows, on which I put a red bow before hanging. This year I declined that part of my job. I also would put garland on the porch railing with accompanying bows on each post. Lastly, I'd put lights on the porch, bushes in front of the porch, and decorate a blue spruce like a Christmas tree (Wes really looks forward to decorating this tree with me each year).

However, I wonder if my focus on the "work" is obfuscating the reason why we do this each year. My kids love it. Kim and I love how the house looks when we're done. For some reason, Kim can stay focused on the previously itemized reasons why we do it; I can only focus on "why the hell do we do this?"

Christmas is meant to be special for everyone. Kids look forward to it as much as their birthday (if not more). There are dozens and dozens of originally composed and arranged Christmas music and many more variations of those pieces. People wear Christmas clothes and jewelry. There is a virtual cornucopia of TV specials during December. My company is giving us 12 days off to be with our families (which is unprecedented in my career thus far).

However, because of Christmas, many people go into debt from which it will take them months to rise (if at all). It's often described as a highly stressful time of year.

With so much emphasis on a single holiday, is Christmas over-emphasized or am I just a scrooge?

Christmas would be so much easier if we cared less it; if it we less emphasized. But would it then be less special? Must we accept the work, stress, and debt to have the emphasis on celebrating with family and friends?

Comments welcome.