One of the personality traits that irritates me the most is when people allow other people's experience with an event to determine their own. A good (and recent, albeit I should have written this 3 weeks ago) example is Christmas. There are several reasons not to like what Christmas has "turned in to" in contemporary American society. A quick list:

-Obnoxious decorations
-Annoying music
-That those 2 things I listed start right after Halloween
-Emphasis on consumption
-Holiday stress around said shopping
-Material giving instead of meaningful giving
-De-emphasis on the religious meaning for the holiday

Many people look at these qualities of Christmas, mainly defined by the mass culture, as reasons to "hate" the holiday. While these things can be quite grating, to me it's only half of the picture. I don't really care for any of the things listed above, but just because the mass culture defines Christmas in these superficial ways, doesn't mean that I have to.

In other words, I enjoy Christmas on terms that I determine, and dismiss or avoid the aspects of it I don't like. It's an attempt to break away from the dualistic way of looking at life.

The dualistic mind says that things are Good OR Bad. Things are right OR wrong.
The non-dualistic mind recognizes that good things come WITH bad things. Right comes WITH wrong. To destroy one is to to destroy the other, and to praise one is to give existence to the other.

In closing, I reckon it is appropriate I write this about Christmas now. The 12 days of Christmas did start on the 25th of course. Let's not even talk about how skipped over Advent is!!