Christmas on Hold?

It isn't looking a lot like Christmas yet, and we're halfway through December. Is it just me, or does everyone seem to be putting Christmas on hold this year? (Everyone, that is, apart from the stores, which started trumpeting Christmas right after the Fourth of July.)
Last year I was deluged with catalogs starting in September - this year the catalogs have trickled in - maybe seven in all. I don't object: I'm all for not wasting paper and saving the planet, but I don't think altruism is the reason the catalogs aren't coming. Merchants have decided catalogs are not profitable.
On my street only one person has put up lights - and that as late as last weekend. I was the only person to have a wreath on my door the weekend after Thanksgiving. (As for the lights, I'm lazy. I admit it. I'm waiting for my teenage son to do it for me. Given enough cookies and nagging, it will get done.)
I don't see evidence of cheer in my walks around the neighborhood, either. Could it be the economic mess George W. left us with has made Americans (gasp!) thrifty?
Are we returning to a quiet stay at home, low key, noncommercial holiday? Have we decided our Christmases were too loud, too secular, too ostentatious? Somehow I don't think so. I believe we will go back to our crazy Christmas frenzy when the economy improves. It's the American way, after all.
Merry Christmas, everybody.