Much as I'm for the transfer of wealth from the older generations to the younger generations, Christmas is kinda bullshit to parents. You shouldn't feel guilty because your kid didn't get the new Nintendo console right when it came out. Toy advertising in general is designed to make kids harass/guilt their parents into buying shit neither party needs. So many parents are running around near Christmas legit desperate to find some specific thing.
Halloween is the same basic emotional journey (preparation > social interaction > gifts) but it uses something that kids love (candy) and can be bought super cheap in bulk.
Birthdays are also significantly less cruel because they look inwards instead of outwards. Since only a tiny minority of kids are going to have birthdays at the same time kids and parents aren't thinking about what other kids got.
The only good thing I'll say about Christmas is that it gives people a lot of time off and makes it socially unacceptable to not give your kids toys at all. At some point Americans forgot that people aren't just school/work drones, I really think that without holidays we'd try to make the 5 day 9-to-5 grind a year round thing.
Edit: But then, most schools give kids way TOO much time off for Christmas. And for summer. Why are we raising kids to be in school 8 months out of the year, when they're going to be in work 12 months out of the year as adults? A better system would be something like splitting the year into trimesters and having a two week break in between them, and then a one week break after midterms. That would roughly mirror the vacations adults take although obviously still be more days off. Oh and any teacher that gives homework for a break should be summarily executed.