>>>>Hmm... hate to jump on that, but I think it's 'Dead as a doornail' from Dicken's A Christmas Carol.

>Actually, I never read the book. After see mulriple version of the story as movies, it never appealed to me to read it. Perhaps I should reconsider that.

He's actually the guy, and this is actually the book which started the whole Christmas hype. Until that, it was no big deal. But then someone smelled a market... http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_014.html

...so one extra gripe I have with Christianity in particular: can you at least stop removing the only few viewable things on TV and putting the green-and-red stuff all over my screen for the whole month? I'm paying for that TV just like you do, so could I please have at least something there that's not dedicated to your shopping etc?

I love Christmas... because when it's finished, it doesn't repeat for months.