User blog comment:Hamsterlampglade/Would a place like Rapture or Columbia celebrate Christmas? Or some other gift-giving holiday?/@comment-12.186.227.68-20140401041307/@comment-75.36.138.197-20140401072538

Gift giving to people who dont need the gift is NOT altruistic.

Since most people get gifts back in return (its a kind of transaction), its not charity.

In the Roman world Saturnalia was a way of repaying people you interacted with in one lump instead of for each step throughout the year (also a way to maintain service through the year to get your gift) and would amount  to one significant gift instead of many smaller ones (less overhead in effort to do it once)

It could be decoupled from Religion, possibly attached to some time marking event like New Years. Season didnt seem to be able to exist so the traditional season holidays dont make any sense.