The commercialism is trying to get us to believe things that aren't true, trying to get us to "buy into" something and that can make me a bit sad. I have a passage I like to re-read each year:

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Before we go any further, it is necessary to acknowledge the part that the various media play in provoking the "gimme" attitude children develop during the month of December. Many children, especially younger ones, are painfully suggestive when it comes to wanting whatever they see on television. It has but to flicker into view on the screen, and it becomes their heart's desire. They must have it, even if they don't know what it is. And if they suspect they might not get it, they are crushed. They feel woefully forsaken if they cannot have the toys they see on TV: the toys that make the kids in the commercials happy, the toys that make those same kids have lots of nice friends to play with, the toys that give those commercial kids a big new house to live in and a mother who brings cookies and Kool-Aid while they're playing with their My Little Pony dolls.

Isn't this readily apparent? I recognize in myself a tremendous response to beer ads, by way of example. I hesitate to mention it, but when I see those young, upwardly mobile young couples having a Lowenbrau, I almost believe that if I go out and buy a case, a swarm of caring, interesting, attractive friends--whom I have somehow known for years--will materialize, and we'll sit in front of our natural stone fireplace (with the hearth as big as all outdoors) on the bearskin rug, pour our liquid ambrosia into crystal schooners, and laugh and tell stories as the flickering light from the cheerful fire beams from our beautiful faces while we bask in the warm fellowship of our Rocky Mountain A-frame. . .

How much more susceptible is the six-year old? A child whose parents are busy much of the time with their various responsibilities, a child whose red hair and freckles invite ridicule on the playground, a child who has trouble in school because he's dyslexic, a child who wishes he had a big brother instead of a colicky baby sister who has effectively upstaged him in the family circus! Of course he wants a Gobot! Naturally he'd like to have coordinate Winnie the Pooh clothes from Sears! Who wouldn't like to eat Frankenberrry cereal for breakfast every morning? obviously that's where the happiness is. The commercial kids demonstrating all these products don't have the same problems and anxieties he does. What else can he conclude?

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From: The Christmas Book by Alice Slaikeu Lawhead (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1985), page 85-86.