What happened to the holiday spirit this year?

It is just a personal observation of mine that in several decades I have never seen so much negativity in people as I have been seeing during this 2006 holiday season.

Sometimes it seems as if all of the worst traits of people are showing themselves just as Christmas draws near. What a shame.

Maybe we need to step back for just a moment and look at our situations with some more perspective. There is way too much rushing about and aggressive driving, to the point that pedestrians are nearly getting run over and store employees are being verbally abused. There is way too much petty bickering, criticism, rudeness and confrontational attitude among us, considering the season.