I think maybe for people whose ideas of Christmas are mostly formed of memories from their childhoods, this may be true. Back then, you were innocent and largely unaware of the existence of marketing, although it was there. Now, as adults, we see all that. And if that's all Christmas is for us, yes, it's destroyed.

But there are two reasons it's not been destroyed. Those of us who have children can slow ourselves down and see things through their eyes. Our whole family was delighted last night when a 4-year-old got all excited about a package of gummy bears, ignoring the much bigger presents she'd gotten along with them. Hers was the biggest, happiest reaction over a gift all evening, and it cost fifty cents. You can bet that the person who spent that 50 cents was just as delighted as she was.

The other reason is people for whom Christmas doesn't mean the whole tree/Santa/Rudolph thing, but the birth of Christ. This can't be destroyed by commercialization, because it was never much a part of it. Yes, you can go out and buy giant nativity scenes, but those are far outnumbered by 10-foot-high snowglobes and inflated Frosties.

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