What is the Reason?

I spent some time with friends today, it's Guy Fawkes night, which means a lot to my Newfoundland friends, and I was happy to share a bit of it with them.  It made me think about traditions.  My friends and I seem to be grasping on to our old traditions, resisting the urge to conform to the standards of today's materialistic societal values.   It's hard because I feel the need to conform, but am resisting so much almost too far in the other direction, skipping holidays I would have enjoyed as a younger person.  I've become jaded, by what I see around me.  It makes you question your own values, and what traditions you've kept from childhood, does it mean anything now? Is it worth it?  The expectations are sometimes overwhelming, especially if you're a women, whose duty it is to make your family happy.  Keeping things simple, makes you look like a failure these days in our commodity driven culture.  Where will it end?  But, I will try again this season to give Christmas some meaning. Wish me luck.