Do people really believe you can't celeibrate Christmas without Jesus?

I live in an area of the country that has more churches then it does gas stations. Most if not all of these churches have signs saying how Jesus is the reason for the season. I have for the last few years read a few sites with the history of Christmas and have to say that the only reason Jesus is even involved is the church was attempting to rid the world of pagan rituals. I found how many of the traditions aren't based on any christian rites but come from pagan rites. http://www.holidays.net/christmas/story.htm In the USA it wasn't until the mid 1800's that what we see as Christmas took form here in this country. http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/ch/in_america.htm

I think if Jesus was actually important to christians for Christmas they wouldn't be out there spending small fortunes on gifts that tend to end up on the shelves unused after a few weeks or so. I have no idea how much is spent on Christmas gifts each year here in the USA but figure it is in the high millions if not over a billion. If all the people who celebrated Christmas would take just half the money they spend on unneeded gifts and give it to actual charities, churches aren't charities to me, how many people would be helped around the world? I have always understood that Jesus was all about love and helping those less fortunate. People, at this time of year, give a little to help get gifts and food for those less fortunate but never seem to have enough end the problems. I don't remember anything in the bible about giving those not in need of help expensive gifts and ignoring the ones needing help paying electric and other utilities. I do agree that there are people out here that will abuse any help they get but most people aren't that way. There are also people that need to have hard times to get it though their heads that they need to reset their priorities. I was talking with my brother-in-law during Thanksgiving and he give me a good example of someone that needed to rethink how he was spending money. We just got the lottery here in this state and one of the guys my bro-in-law supervises came to him wanting to borrow some money for animal food because he was broke. He was asked what had happened to his money and he said that he had been playing the lottery and had a streak of bad luck. This type of person doesn't need help but needs to have it rough for a short time.

Churches aren't charities, they are just distribution centers for people that give them stuff to give away. I know that there are some that do put some small amounts of money into their communities but most wouldn't rate very high on groups that rate charities. Most of the churches I have noticed never use the money they get from their members to help others. The items they give out usually come from individuals and companies but the churches take credit for it as charity they are doing.