A lot of American families are facing difficult decisions this Christmas.

Unemployment is still north of 10 percent, consumer debt is far too high and the housing market is still a mess as we approach the shopping season.<img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-149" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/zyglis-300x245.gif" alt="" width="300" height="245" />

Retailers are cutting prices in hopes of generating more business in an economy where 70 percent of activity is consumer spending. That sector of the economy has been depressed this year as families have been working on paying down debt and even saving some money.

But Christmas is the one time of year families -- especially those with children -- try to stretch their budget a little and do something nice. Christmas is the season when folks sit in line all night at Wal-Mart or Best Buy or Sears to try and get those special bargains that they could never afford otherwise.

For six years as a business editor, I went out in the middle of the night on Black Friday and interviewed people who were waiting for stores to open. In November 2007, I met a man who was first in line at a San Bernardino, Cal., Wal-Mart. He waited something like 30 hours so that he could buy his family a $2,000 plasma television set for $800.

"We could never afford anything like that otherwise," he said.

I admire his effort -- passing up Thanksgiving dinner -- but I also have to wonder why $800 for a TV was a reasonable expenditure for a family on a tight budget. I'm sure that one of the most difficult things for a parent to tell his children is that they can't afford a nice Christmas, but I also wish more people would find a way to separate the idea of a happy Christmas from the amount of money spent.

My best memories of Christmas from my childhood have little to do with the gifts I received. I remember things like heading to church in the snow for Christmas Eve services, going caroling with friends and coming downstairs on Christmas morning to the bright lights of my dad and his 8mm movie camera.

I also remember 1971, when several friends and I were all home for Christmas and our families weren't. We all worked together to do a special Christmas dinner.

And I remember flying home from Nevada on Christmas Eve 1989, even though I had to be back on the 28th, to spend Christmas with my family on what turned out to be my grandmother's last Christmas. Three months later, I was flying to Ohio for her funeral.

None of those memories had anything to do with gifts, shopping or spending money.

It really is possible.