Poor Thanksgiving
I think Thanksgiving really gets the short end of the stick.
In the fall, people get all excited about Halloween, with its costumes and its candy. And then, immediately upon finishing Halloween, it is suddenly the Christmas season. Merchants have all their Christmas stuff out and decorations go up almost immediately. No one gives Thanksgiving more than a cursory notice.
Look at these pictures, taken two days ago here in Albany (that would be Nov. 17--a full two and a half weeks before Thanksgiving).
And I don't have a picture of this, but there is an actual Christmas tree lot set up already in the Bi-Mart parking lot. How crazy is that? Who buys a Christmas tree in mid-November? And the grocery store in North Albany has a giant inflatable snowman outside its doors.
In case you couldn't tell, I am firmly of the No Christmas Before Thanksgiving persuasion, and I have already trained my girls in my ways. Every time we go into the store, Beth exclaims loudly (because she is incapable of doing anything quietly, unless it is something naughty, in which case she is stealth personified), "Christmas stuff already? Silly stores!" And I say, "I know! It's not even Thanksgiving." And Lucy echoes, "Silly stores!" and we all glare at the seasonal merchandise.
Here's the thing: when you start Christmas this early, Thanksgiving gets completely ignored. And it's a really good holiday. It's about giving thanks for what we have. It teaches a spirit of gratitude, which is something I'd really like to develop in my girls.
Also, it's about spending time with family, and eating good food, especially pie. I am greatly in favor of food and family and pie.
Now, I am not a Scrooge. I love Christmas. It is my favorite holiday. I just think that celebrating it for nearly two solid months de-values it. When you have your Christmas stuff up for that long, you get tired of it way before the big day ever gets here. It seems less special. It makes Christmas not a highly-anticipated, out-of-the-ordinary holiday, but an exhausting and overblown "season."
Seems to me like there used to be a rule: No Christmas Decorations Before Thanksgiving. It was an unbreakable rule in my family growing up. The day after Thanksgiving, the Christmas decorations came out. But not before. Never before.
I continue to hold fast to this rule in my house. Anybody else with me?
In the fall, people get all excited about Halloween, with its costumes and its candy. And then, immediately upon finishing Halloween, it is suddenly the Christmas season. Merchants have all their Christmas stuff out and decorations go up almost immediately. No one gives Thanksgiving more than a cursory notice.
Look at these pictures, taken two days ago here in Albany (that would be Nov. 17--a full two and a half weeks before Thanksgiving).
And I don't have a picture of this, but there is an actual Christmas tree lot set up already in the Bi-Mart parking lot. How crazy is that? Who buys a Christmas tree in mid-November? And the grocery store in North Albany has a giant inflatable snowman outside its doors.
In case you couldn't tell, I am firmly of the No Christmas Before Thanksgiving persuasion, and I have already trained my girls in my ways. Every time we go into the store, Beth exclaims loudly (because she is incapable of doing anything quietly, unless it is something naughty, in which case she is stealth personified), "Christmas stuff already? Silly stores!" And I say, "I know! It's not even Thanksgiving." And Lucy echoes, "Silly stores!" and we all glare at the seasonal merchandise.
Here's the thing: when you start Christmas this early, Thanksgiving gets completely ignored. And it's a really good holiday. It's about giving thanks for what we have. It teaches a spirit of gratitude, which is something I'd really like to develop in my girls.
Also, it's about spending time with family, and eating good food, especially pie. I am greatly in favor of food and family and pie.
Now, I am not a Scrooge. I love Christmas. It is my favorite holiday. I just think that celebrating it for nearly two solid months de-values it. When you have your Christmas stuff up for that long, you get tired of it way before the big day ever gets here. It seems less special. It makes Christmas not a highly-anticipated, out-of-the-ordinary holiday, but an exhausting and overblown "season."
Seems to me like there used to be a rule: No Christmas Decorations Before Thanksgiving. It was an unbreakable rule in my family growing up. The day after Thanksgiving, the Christmas decorations came out. But not before. Never before.
I continue to hold fast to this rule in my house. Anybody else with me?
6 comments:
i'm with you. :) it seems even sillier down here where it still feels like summer and everyone's ready for Christmas. i think Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I'm sad that it gets ignored. :(
I'm with you too. My Christmas stuff comes out the day after Thanksgiving and not before. I do get my Christmas shopping done prior to Thanksgiving, and that has more to do with shipping than anything else.
Planning for Christmas and shopping for it do not break the rule! They are perfectly fine in my book. I have a lot my Christmas presents bought already and that is such a good feeling. I'm only anti- celebrating early.
I saw the trees in the Bi-mart parking lot yesterday and scoffed them thoroughly. I'm with you Jen. I was a breaker of the rule when it came to music (love my Christmas music) when I was younger, but now the building anticipation of Christmas is so much more thrilling. Thanksgiving is such a great holiday and it does get passed up in the stampede to be the first to "deck the halls." Besides, I always felt winter did not begin until after Thanksgiving and celebrating a winter holiday before it was even winter was just wrong.
We don't even celebrate Thanksgiving down here, but I'm still with you!! ha ha. I saw the first Christmas decorations here late October! That is just ridiculous!! What's even more ridiculous for us Southern Hemisphere folks is that the decorations are STILL all about snow and reindeer, which are hardly prevalent at this time of year he he.
Absolutely on-target. And no Christmas music or Christmas specials, either. We have all the good movies on DVD now, but the ONLY time it is OK to watch them is day-after-Thanksgiving through roughly the first week of January. Then it's back in the cupboard for the rest of the year.
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