I read a funny book by John Grisham called "Skipping Christmas". The premise was that a couple decides to skip all the trappings of Christmas by taking a cruise to the Caribbean. Their daughter had left the nest and they wanted a relaxing holiday for a change. It was a very interesting book because there are so many people who seem to get caught up in the anxiety of the season that they do not truly enjoy it. Everything from Christmas cards, to fruit cakes, to company Christmas parties, to decorating the house seems to drag from the true meaning and makes Christmas more tiring than joyful. I would not recommend skipping Christmas, but scaling back might be appropriate for some people. In the book, the daughter returns at the last moment to celebrate with her parents and her new fiancee. There is a funny ending where the parents have to recreate the Christmas of her childhood very rapidly which makes the anxiety even worse. But they manage to learn a lesson about what is really important in life, when they give their trip to a neighborhood woman with cancer and her husband.