pope benedict and I agree for the first time!

Pope says shun excessive materialism at Christmas
NOTE: my only relief is that here in the Netherlands, the whole present giving bit is carried out at the beginning of december (and in my case rather nicely, thanks to the deibels in general and carla in particular, who accepted to share their chimmney with me, as I dont have one of my own and would be miserable without any doubt, waiting for him in vain in front of my heater in the dark storage room) as (as far as I'm concerned) St.kls comes over from Spain (who knows why...) and brings presents while outsourcing the distribution to some black piets (that serioulsy offend black friends and some politically correct americans). the only nice thing is that he's on a horse (yes, white), not on a carriage pulled by reindeer. it seems to me that the suffering of the deer is replaced by the suffering of the pieten.
anyway, pls see how me and beneditus agree (and please dont ask why I was reading christaintoday.com):

Pope Benedict on Sunday urged Catholics to rediscover the religious significance of Christmas, saying the holiday should not be dominated by materialism.
Posted: Sunday, December 9, 2007

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict on Sunday urged Catholics to rediscover the religious significance of Christmas, saying the holiday should not be dominated by materialism.

The Pope's words at his Sunday blessing to crowds in a rainy St Peter's Square marked the second consecutive day that the Pontiff warned of consumerism just as the Christmas shopping season kicked off in Italy.

"Too often, unfortunately, today's manner of living and perceiving Christmas suffers from a materialistic mentality," he said.

On Saturday, when Roman Catholics marked the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the leader of the 1.1 billion member Church said adults were only deceiving children by introducing them at ever younger ages into a life of unbridled materialism.

Too many children were growing up in a world saturated with "false models of happiness" and being lured by unscrupulous adults into what he called the "dead-end street of consumerism," he said on Saturday.