Cover via AmazonThat's what Ross Douthat wrote in an op-ed piece for the New York Times.  And, he makes some interesting points:

Christmas is hard for everyone. But it’s particularly hard for people who actually believe in it.

In a sense, of course, there’s no better time to be a Christian than the first 25 days of December. But this is also the season when American Christians can feel most embattled. Their piety is overshadowed by materialist ticky-tack. Their great feast is compromised by Christmukkwanzaa multiculturalism. And the once-a-year churchgoers crowding the pews beside them are a reminder of how many Americans regard religion as just another form of midwinter entertainment, wedged in between “The Nutcracker” and “Miracle on 34th Street.”

These anxieties can be overdrawn, and they’re frequently turned to cynical purposes. (Think of the annual “war on Christmas” drumbeat, or last week’s complaints from Republican senators about the supposed “sacrilege” of keeping Congress in session through the holiday.) But they also reflect the peculiar and complicated status of Christian faith in American life. Depending on the angle you take, Christianity is either dominant or under siege, ubiquitous or marginal, the strongest religion in the country or a waning and increasingly archaic faith.

Well, is it hard on us Christian folk?  I know that sometimes the understanding of Christianity comes under seige at this time.  We find it hard to distance the coming of Christ from middle-class consumerism and I do think it can run the risk of being a time when "Christianity-lite" takes center stage and Jesus gets reduced to a warm feeling in our hearts.  But perhaps the offers us a great oportunity each year to buck that trend, to show Christ in service and to downplay the consumerism of the season.  And, while it may be hard, that's what Christ requires of us.