"Is changing minds, and perhaps romanticizing holidays the only reasonable, non-authoritarian solution?"
I think simply having conversations about the history and meaning of the holidays would go a long way. And by "having conversations" here I mean having reasonable, constructive and celebratory ones, not the annual "muh injun genocide feel guilty whitey" garbage that some corners of the Internet love to peddle.
I find that most people are simply apathetic to the holidays. There's no feeling of wonder or sanctity or connection to a broader whole.
Consider all that's going on. It's the start of winter. The rhetorical "end of the day" for one year. It's the time of year that's as close as prosperous Westerners will ever get to feeling the harsh coldness that their ancestors had to fight and conquer in order to stay alive. You walk into a building and literally feel the warmth of the heater, as you leave the austere cold behind you and enter into the company of family and friends. That simple feeling is an opportunity to connect yourself to human history. There's a reason the pagans celebrated with winter festivals, the Romans had their Saturnalia, and of course, the medieval Christians whose societies were the ancestors to our own had Christmas, which we still celebrate. You are participating in a tradition which has explicit times of celebration going back thousands of years, which in turn is ultimately adapted from the constant battle of survival against the cold and harsh winter which mankind has waged since he first came out of the caves.
How cool is that?
It doubly serves as a time for reflection upon the past year, and a time to resolve to make the next year better. You could theoretically do that part at any time, but the turning of the calendar is a powerful temporal imprint, and even the subtle scenery outside, as the green plants go away until next year, serves as another marker to let you know that now's a great time to make plans for succeeding next year.
There's so much potential there for breaking out of the everyday materialistic grind and sharing a few real moments with the people that came before you, the people still here with you, and setting a new path for yourself. People just don't see it because of the blitz of commercials and the expectations of gift-giving and receiving.
I guess I did just romanticize the whole thing, didn't I? But I really do believe all of that. And I think if we talk to people about the holidays like that, maybe they'll start to see it that way too.