Happy Thanksgiving! . . . wait, is it over?
Did you have a Happy Thanksgiving? I sure did. Now onto Christmas! Wait a minute… the Christmas season started right after Halloween, right? Christmas music has been playing on the radio, and the stores have been decorated for a few weeks now. It seems like this pesky little holiday called Thanksgiving gets wedged into the mix and then gets used as an accelerant for Christmas called, “Black Friday”.
I am certainly not against Christmas. It is probably my favorite time of year. What I don’t like is that it seems like we allow everyone else call the shots when we are celebrating these holidays. Why does Halloween and Christmas garner so much attention and Thanksgiving comes and goes in a puff of smoke? We even actually get two days off for Thanksgiving—and none for Halloween. I guess we need one of those days to celebrate Thanksgiving and the other to start shopping for Christmas. We can’t even slow down long enough to let the dust settle.
The hijacking of these holidays serves one major purpose—to sell more stuff! The stores, TV stations, and advertisers start earlier and earlier to sell more and more. They couldn’t care less about what these holidays are really about. Family, friends, God, and country? Who needs it… Now let’s get selling! Thanksgiving pays the highest price, because we don’t buy anything for it. It is a time to stop, pause, reflect, and give thanks for all that we have in America.
Thanksgiving Day is a day set aside each year for giving thanks to God for blessings received during the year. We live in the best country in the world. We are the freest. We are the most prosperous. We are the most generous. We are truly a blessed nation. I feel very fortunate to call America my home. I am very grateful. Along with that, I have an awesome family and great friends. I am able to freely worship and exercise my Christian faith. I am not persecuted for my beliefs and can travel freely anywhere I choose. No other country in the world, besides Canada, celebrates Thanksgiving. That should tell you something.
So here is what I am doing. I am opting out of the hustle and bustle of this 30-second sound bite “holiday”. The retailers don’t have anything to gain by droning on about Thanksgiving, but we all do. I am going to take these few precious days to slow down and let the Thanksgiving aura persist before it gets snuffed out by the oncoming freight train of the Christmas season. I will then prepare for Christmas in its due season, because right on its heels is Valentine’s Day.
Happy Thanksgiving!