I'm not entirely sure what Colby is so worked up about, here:
Lest I be accused of being Scrooge-ish, let me rephrase this way: our Christmas-shopping decisions should be determined entirely by our sentiments, and not at all by naive Keynesianism.
Does Colby really believe that people are motivated to spend money on Christmas shopping for the sake of the national economy? Somewhere out there, is Ronald Reagan dying on screen and saying "Go out there and spend just one for Wal-Mart!" Come now! It must be obvious that when people say things like, "Oh well, at least it helps the economy" to half-excuse a purchase, they're just humorously displaying shame and justifying their greed.
Or does Colby object to the heavy reporting of retail sales figures during the Christmas season? Surely then he also objects to the reporting of retail sales figures in other seasons, and to economic statistics in general.
To me the Christmas retail figures are like the box office gross receipts reported weekly for movies -- they provide a useful datum about my fellow citizens' behavior. But they're much more relevant, since retail is a more important sector of the economy than entertainment.
But that must be because my own Christmas buying decisions are already dictated only by sentiment, not by a perverse altruistic patriotism which expresses itself in consumption.