text: Psychology and experience both have taught us: you can horribly influence and damage another person by controlling or prescribing only TWO THINGS their a) sorrow and their b) joy.  
  
  There is nothing sicker, meaner, or more sad than your sentence: "We were taught we could not get too happy at Christmas." 
  
  
  You seem to say we've been taught: "Now don't be TOO happy!!!! Live with the brakes on. Don't cherish the moment. Feast..but feel guilty about it. Live for today, but make sure you worry more about tomorrow.  It's almost always better to fast than to feast."
  
  Alas, you are right. 
  
  People (and many Catholics among  them)  who have learned that, really come to believe, "It hurts so good." 
  
  Go ahead and feast--and make sure you help others to do the same. Share the joy. But don't make a virtue out of sharing the pain.