The celebrations at the end of the year used to be known simply as the Christmas break.

Then, in a nod to those of us who aren’t Christian and businesses looking for bigger sales, the season became the holidays — an extended period from Thanksgiving to the day after New Year’s that was occasion for all manner of doorbuster bargains.

Lately, commercial interests mostly in the tourism industry have taken to calling it the festive season.

And there are some who have bailed from the yuletide spirit altogether and embraced the holiday of Festivus, which originated as a parody on “Seinfeld” depicting “a Festivus for the rest of us” that featured among other traditions the “airing of grievances.”

I’ve mostly been a grump about it all, but my feelings changed last week when I had a medical appointment at one of those large practices with eight doctors of different specialties, a large nursing and support staff and a long hallway full of examination rooms.

A few of the staff were busily decorating the place with a bazillion stickers large and small, filling the floors, walls, doors, counters and windows with a vast assortment of holiday symbols and sayings.

What struck me was how happy it made everybody. Those hanging the decorations were getting much enjoyment from the effort. Patients looking on from the waiting room were all smiles as glad tidings started to fill the walls around them. Even the busy doctors and nurses seemed unusually cheerful from the activity as they ducked in and out of exam rooms.

It reminded me of another holiday season years ago when I had to drop off test results with a doctor who had a busy solo practice in a much smaller office.

It was after hours, and I’d intended to tape the envelope to the door, but it was unlocked so I went in. I found the doctor sitting alone and decompressing from a busy day in the tiny waiting room of an office darkened except for a string of colored lights his staff had put up as the highlight of modest holiday decorations.

“I love this time and this place,” he said. “It’s amazing how much a few little lights can raise the spirit.”

Then we have Black Friday shoppers who wade into the madness each year. They often take grief for consumerist greed and misplaced priorities, but I admire them.

What’s wrong with enjoying crowds of happy like-minded people, or seeking to stretch scarce dollars to buy nicer gifts for loved ones?

I say embrace whatever festivities and traditions bring you comfort and gratitude, as the colored lights did for my doctor.

It’s a reminder that in troubled times with seemingly existential threats everywhere, being able to take a break — when much of the world can’t — for celebrations originally rooted in love of family and humankind can mark a pathway to a more hopeful future.

The challenge, as always, is to carry the giving spirit into the rest of the year and acknowledge our responsibility to those elsewhere who suffer dreadful hardships and can’t take a break to count what few blessings they have.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.