It's true though ~ my mate in work who has two children is now refusing to discuss Christmas with his sister's anymore. One of them always turns it into some sort of "who can spoil their kids the most" competition.
The other year he told her he'd bought his youngest, a 7 year old girl, an iPad ~ he hadn't ~ his sister then went out and bought one for her 10 year old daughter.
Crazy.
I lived in Lanzarote for a few years and Christmas didn't start till end of Nov/beginning of Dec. Then when it was Christmas it was mainly about Christmas, not the American consumer Christmas.
I'm not religious in anyway, but I enjoyed it more than I do here.