Erm... a few days off? Which rather fail to compensate for:
Name
The fact that what started as an xtian attempt to sideline a pagan festival has become a 2-month macabre display of rampant and societally-compelled consumerism. The fact that the streets are clogged with bipedal sheep heeding this urge and leading their credit cards to the slaughter. The fact that we never seem to get any decent snow these days. The fact that when we do get snow it invariably involves me falling off my bike, rather than any of the fun it used to bring. The fact that public transport gets *even worse*. The fact that I'm bombared by meaningless (and unmeant) xtian simperings in the form of precanned carols, and the equally meaningless simperings of the latest precanned "pop star".
The fact, essentially, that it's when people act most like people. And I can't kill any of them.