I am so old that I can actually remember when there was a difference between the number of "shopping days" until Christmas and the number of calendar days. They always ran a little box with that magical number on the front page of the Cleveland Press, itself now a faded memory. (For those of you under a certain age, this was because in the day most stores were not open for business on Sunday. Can you believe it?) I am, however, not too old to recall worries that the central message of Christmas was being overshadowed by commercialism and consumerism. The truth is, I am not sure whether Baby Jesus was much on my mind the Christmas right after I turned six, but that Lionel HO gauge double-diesel locomotive electric train with realistic horn was on my mind quite a bit. I am happy to report th…