Christmas, like birthhdays, has always had a sort of ambivalent glad/sad effect on me, I like the holidays and the partying (of course), I care not at all about the religious significance... it also brings memories of stormy christmas eve at home when I was a kid, with crockery smashing against walls and death threats profusely and liberally offered from one family member to another.
It is a marker of the passing of time, which could be good as it should make us reflect on what has takplace, how we have evolved, etc in the intervening year and take stock and, hopefully, learn from what has happened to us and what we've done. It is also an excuse to party, which can't be a bad thing!. But by the same token it is also a reminder of our being transient, ephemeral.
o god, i'm getting kind of gloomy here, anybody might think i'm a goth or something terrible like that!