All the decorations look good. Xmas lights are becoming a thing here now, and people tend to stick them up starting after Halloween. The lights all look nice, so I have no complaints. I'm not big on gift giving (I agree with what you wrote about it above) or on Xmas music, but general decorations look nice and give a bit of cheer, so I'm all for them.
I agree this all of what you wrote as well! That is cool that it is starting to become more of a thing over there. I wonder why just now?
Xmas has been here for awhile. It's just a fun day when Santa comes, more a kid's special day than holiday. But no one really put up any lights until the past few years. The cynical part of me thinks it was probably department stores looking for more money, trying to push people to buy lights. But I don't really know. Maybe there was a celebrity that started putting up lights and everyone wanted to copy.
Ah yeah, that could be the case. Commercialization of holidays has gotten quite out of hand. My wife and I don't even do Valentine's day, and don't get me started on "Sweetest Day".