Christmas, what is it about?

Our holiday tradition has always been to put up the Christmas Decorations on Thanksgiving Day. Then writing out Christmas cards and bake an insane amount of cookies for all of the office parties, church class parties, school parties, etc. Shop for and wrap gifts and oh yeah, celebrate the holidays. What I do is nothing compared to some. The last couple of years, I've had to change up our "traditions"...and we have focused more on the real reason for Christmas. Still, in the midst of all of this holiday preparation I can’t help but wonder, do we really mean the “Merry Christmas” and all that goes with it, or has it just become an automatic thing to say to the other person?

I believe that if we wanted to, we could give up our materialism and enjoy what this holiday is supposed to be about. Or, do we still know what the holiday is supposed to be about. Schools have "Winter Festivals". We no longer have Christmas Parades. There was talk from our President about not putting up the traditional Nativity scene. Even churches are closing their doors the week of Christmas.

Christmas has lost it's meaning over the years. What are we doing to bring it back?