Is celebrating Christmas required of Catholics? I understand that Catholics are obligated to attend mass and take communion on Christmas &mdash; are they obligated to celebrate Christmas in the traditional tree-in-the-house, gift-giving sense?
As a Catholic, you are required to celebrate the "holy-day" of Christmas, as you mentioned, by going to Mass, receiving the Eucharist, giving honor and glory to God and celebrating Jesus' birth. However, you are not required to celebrate it in the "traditional tree in the house gift giving sense". These traditions, like many traditions on Christian holidays, represent something related to the holiday, but are not a necessity. What really is important is giving honor and glory to God on that day. To sum it up, it is not required to put up a tree, decorate or give gifts, you just need to make the holiday a holy-day. If you can find other ways to celebrate that give glory to God, do them. They are much more pleasing to Him than letting what has become mostly secular occupy your mind and heart. 

P.S. There's nothing wrong with the extras. As long as Jesus is the center, they make nice additions! 

Christ be with you!