I'm a scrooging Grinch

Christmastime or the holiday season is an interesting time.  There is only one way to embrace and accept the "spirit" and that is with red and green, bows, decorations, Christmas music, things smelling like cinnamon or cloves, and other typical associations.  The office is decked out with Christmas decorations and I made the mistake of saying that it smelled strange (cloves and cinnamon) so the grinch comments came out of the woodwork.  A few days later I commented on the annoying Christmas music that was playing on a CD outside an office.  Again the barrage of grinch and scrooge comments.  The HyWy made a good comment about the idea of Christmas spirit.  We were discussing whether people truly know what it is beneath all this pomp and circumstance when they are younger.  Once people get older and recognize the real meaning of it then do they still remember it?  The conversation about the real meaning of Christmas made me think about why if one doesn't celebrate Christmas significantly are they expected to wholeheartedly buy into the "spirit"?  I feel like I understand the real meaning of Christmas, but I don't enjoy the rest of it (at least at this point in my life) and during the holiday season I feel like an outcast.  Of course if and when there is a kid in our lives I'm sure things will change, because in my mind the rest of Christmas is the most fun with a kid.  For the time being I will happily go along with being a Grinch (or at least the Grinch at the end of the story).