During college Christmas was better because we could de-compress after finals and semester end projects, while Thanksgiving signaled a lull before the storm. Also, we had limited responsibilities for the holiday itself.

December now is always super hectic both from a work standpoint and from a standpoint of prepping for the holiday. I do agree with some of the comments that some of this is self imposed and suggests and overly commercialized view of the holiday and can be prevented/fixed.

Ironically though some of the biggest stresses in years past had nothing to do with overcommercializing Christmas, quite to the contrary. Our stake for years put on a huge and very elaborate living nativity for the community. This was always very nice and very rewarding but represented a huge time commitment, and for some a huge money commitment, for many of us involved. The Church stepped in a few years ago and instructed us to kill it, presumably for these reasons.