Smallville - Lexmas

Ok, so it was an entertaining episode and interesting to see how Lex's life might have been if he chose a different path... and I realize that The Christmas Story is a classic... but how many movies, shows, plays, musicals, etc... can they create with some sort of variation on the story? ...Like I said, it was interesting but falls a little short in the originality and creativity department...
...and if the whole point of showing Lex what could be was to encourage him to change his ways, why show his wife dying? I know Garth Brooks sings that touching song about "the dance" but don't you think the info about that "dance" was a little too much too soon?