Double Edged Sword

The holidays are rather the double edged sword. On one hand if we make the retailers happy and spend money we dont have, they are able to stay in buisness and that creates jobs for sales people who ring up our many purchases. I am all for someone being able to work and it breaks my heart to see so many people who want to work and are unable to find a job.
But for the most part it only creates jobs for store clerks since the majority of everything we buy comes from China. It creates very little in the way of jobs for our citizens who actually can make a product here in America. On the other hand, it creates great stress for people who are unemployed or underemployed and no longer have the means and funds to buy gifts for thier family members. This leads to guilt and all kinds of emotions of inadequacy that you would rather tuck under the rug. You can't put your feelings in a box, wrap it in some pretty paper, put a bow on it and stick it under the tree. Sometimes this inadequacy leads to violence which then leads to using the Christmas funds to bail your butt out of jail.
So why hasn't someone come up with a fun magical cheap non commercial way to celebrate the holidays? Have we all been brainwashed to the point we no longer have any ideas of our own? Or do we just go back to basics of sitting down and having a meal together. Playing cards or bringing out the dusty old board game. What about going through the photo albums or old VHS tapes and laughing at the way we used to look back in the days when we had a whole lot less stress.