Erasing traditional Christmas practices from daily life discouraging, disheartening

“I think there’s something wrong with me. I just don’t understand Christmas. I like getting presents, sending cards, decorating trees and all that. But instead of feeling happy, I feel sort of let down.” — Charlie Brown, “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” 1965

When I was a child in the 1950s, my parents didn’t have much money to spend at Christmastime. I remember one Christmas when I wanted a cowboy gun and holster from Santa Claus. I got the toy pistol, but Santa, it seems, couldn’t afford a holster. So my dad made one for me out of one of my mother’s old leather purses. It didn’t look like the one...