Santa's Elves are Probably Robots

We might as well face it.  The times have changed, the world has gotten more technologically advanced...
And Santa's Elves are probably among some of the highest unemployment rate at this point, as I am sure they have been replaced by robots and state of the art machinery.  If Santa is gonna make a buck these days he would obviously have to stay competitive with cost cutting practices.
I think Christmas has gotten a wee bit overboard on the material side and spending sprees.  I know, I know, beating a dead horse here, everyone always harps on this and yada yada yada.  But I am actually quite serious. I really wish it would get more focused back on things like Christ, family, charity, stuff like that.  I realize it would hurt the (not so) well-oiled machine known as the economy, but if Christmas was more like Thanksgiving, I would not mind a bit.
This year, I am making most of my Christmas gifts for family and friends.  I have bought a few that I found good deals on, or ones that people really wanted that I could not make, and I actually am very excited about the things I have made.  I have also made things for other people to give as gifts, such as personalized coasters and magnets done with their family photos and stuff like that.  It is really amazing all the things that you can personalize.  Making your own coasters, magnets, jewelry, keychains, and stuff like that can be really fun and you can use a lot of things that otherwise might be tossed away.
So far I have made jewelry using bottlecaps, pokemon cards, scrapbook paper, magazine paper, an old dictionary, and am going to be repurposing older jewelry into pieces that look more modern.  By using tiles of various sizes I have made coasters and magnets, and I am even personalizing a wind chime using paper, mod podge, and copious amounts of polyurethane.
All this to say, I think we can learn a lot from making things, personalizing things, and repurposing things.  Later on, decorating an apartment or house, you could really find some interesting things in vintage shops or flea markets that could easily be tailored to your own taste.  You can make jewelry out of all sorts of things if you put a little thought into it.  It teaches you to be resourceful, use your imagination, and I think you really appreciate things that you make or enhance.
And really, Christmas does not need to be so money driven or about who buys whom the best or most gifts.  Why can't we all just get one or two gifts from stores if need be (preferably useful things that we use a lot or something), and some homemade treats and goodies.  If Christmas became a cookie swap, I would not have a single issue with that (with younger kids still getting toys, as that is something I find completely sensical and reasonable).
It really should be a time of family, of looking back on the past year and everything you have been through, and remembering what it really means to celebrate Christmas.  Even if you do not want to or believe in Christ and his birth, I still don't think that Christmas needs to be so commercial.  I think if we thought of our families, those without families, and those that cannot be with their families at the holiday time and made goodies, cards, and just let people know that we care and are thinking about them...I think we would all get a lot more enjoyment out of the holidays instead of dreading it as a time of having to drop hundreds if not thousands of dollars.
Well... and if everyone would drop the arguing over calling things "Holiday Trees" instead of Christmas Trees.  But my rant will inevitably come about being politically correct.  So we will save that topic for then.  :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!