I'm not at all appalled. Many, many years ago my Dad (who was a Jaguar mechanic, now retired) needed a new car and after much research he picked out a Toyota Celica, but they didn't buy right away. My mom surprised him with it for Christmas. It wasn't a gift from a rich wife to her rich husband on a fluke. It was a planned purchase that she made a little early. When someone gets a car for Christmas there may be backstory that you don't know, so don't be so quick to judge.

Two additional points:

Not everyone is hurting this year. I haven't had a job since July, so I can't say we're loaded right now, but I have plenty of friends that really haven't been affected by what's going on. They own their homes and aren't trying to sell, they have a long way to retirement and thus aren't concerned about the market dip, and they have stable jobs in industries that aren't under a huge amount of pressure right now.

There are plenty of people in the auto industry that are being laid off. If I go out and buy a car, and others do too, I may save quite a few people their jobs this year. That's a heck of a lot better than volunteering in a soup kitchen.