I like the Christmas season, and I don’t understand how anyone couldn’t. Christmas is a reflection of all the ideals that govern this country.

Unfortunately, some of those ideals include excessive consumerism and a love for overblown spectacle. But it’s a shame some people focus on those aspects of the season.

This time of year, our whole society begins to operate differently. It’s easy to be critical of the process, but why not join in?

Or if you won’t join in, at least appreciate the awesome spectacle that is Christmas. There really is something for everyone to be amused by.

Just stroll down to Kay B and you’ll see two grandmothers arm wrestling for the last Fondle Me Elmo. Then check the classifieds the next day, and you’ll see one of them for sale for $500.

In front of Wal-Mart, there’s a dirty old man with an iron kettle … and people are actually putting money in it! Any other time of the year he would be arrested and put on the national sex-offender registry.

But it’s Christmas, so we’ll pitch in a quarter to help whoever it is that money goes to.

Another amazing thing is that everything suddenly has to be Christmasized. Most of the year you listen to music — except for one month when you listen to Christmas music.

Even serious connoisseurs put aside their Dylan bootlegs for a while to listen to Randy Travis and the Harlem Boys Choir sing “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”

What’s remarkable is that there are only 17 Christmas songs in the entire world. Nevertheless, people never get their fill of them.

“Sure I’ve heard Silent Night, but I’ve never heard it done by Burl Ives before.”

During the holidays, music comes out of places that it doesn’t any other time of the year. You got ornaments, doormats and even ties that play Christmas tunes. You sit down on a motion sensitive toilet seat, next thing you know you got “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” playing up your ass.

Crappy made-for-TV movies suddenly disappear and are replaced with crappy made-for-TV Christmas movies. How many movies have been made with titles like “The Christmas Dream,” “Christmas in Peoria,” or “A Longshoreman’s Christmas Miracle?” And there are only two possible themes: Either a poor young child learns the true meaning of Christmas, or a bitter old man learns the true meaning of Christmas.

Even food changes for the holidays. Something you’ve been eating all year is suddenly available with a snowman on it.

Across the nation, mothers begin baking really good desserts that apparently can only be made during the holidays.

Dress codes adapt to the season. You’ve got your Christmas ties, your Christmas socks and just about anything else. You can even buy kinky Christmas undergarments.

Now I may sound like I’m being sarcastic about all these things, but I’m not.

I’ve pointed out some ridiculous things about Christmas, but it’s not like I’m the only one who notices them. We all do, and yet we suspend our disbelief and have some fun.

It’s easy to be cynical about the holidays. They are gaudy and they are commercialized. But that’s what we’ve made them — for good or bad.

The holiday train will blow through whether we like it or not. The best thing to do is just forget your apprehensions and enjoy the ride.

There’s a lot going on, and if you look close enough, you’ll find something that’ll make you smile.

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Ben Godar is a junior in sociology from Ames. Christmas gifts can be sent “Care of the Daily.”