The worship of consumerism had replaced Christianity as the main winter festival by the early days of the third millennium, just as Christianity had usurped the pagan gods some two thousand years before.
The hymns of the new religion were the advertising jingles that rang out on television boxes and in-store public address systems, calling in the faithful to worship. It was to the cathedrals of consumerism that the people flocked, the great out-of-town shopping malls, the hypermarkets, the retail parks.
Just as Christianity adopted the characteristics of the mithraists in the third and four centuries, the new religion also offered followers a way to transcend themselves, to travel to the heavens.
The new gods were the celebrities, beatified by reality television shows and the popular press. It was through designer brands, the fashion labels and luxury goods that believers could transform themselves. The more they paced the aisles of the new churches, the more ardently they worshipped at the ringing tills, the alters of consumerism, the closer they could become to the stars.
The icons of the old religion, the nativity scenes, advent calendars were retained as tools of the new consumerism.
On the day of celebration itself, these gods would appear to the millions through the television box, decked in precious metals and in the robes of the new religion.