The 2013 “Holiday” Season has started. We started with Halloween, which I don’t consider a real Holiday. Then there was Christmas 2013. Which I’m sure will be great for most of us. You might be reading this saying uhhh TFG1Mike you left off that last Thursday in November. You’d be correct!
I’m going to be unintentionally negative here. Thanksgiving has been completely forgotten by Americans. Especially the retail industry. WHY? you might ask? Well that’s because there IS NO real merchandise for Tom Turkey Day. Halloween you have costumes, scary things, and candy… OH MY! Then there’s Christmas, and November seems to be the Christmas shopping month. With Black Friday to Cyber Monday deals everywhere the weekend after Thanksgiving. So not only is Christmas super commercialized, Thanksgiving is commercially ignored. Because at least this year as soon as November 1st hit…. three radio stations here in Louisville started playing Christmas music! WHAT….? You can’t be serious about being in Christmas mode, BEFORE THE DAMN TURKEY IS KILLED AND CARVED…can you? SURE I saw Golden Corral ads on TV for their Thanksgiving Day Buffet and all that, but it seems that Thanksgiving is just another day here in the USA.
Now I say that last line in regards to ADVERTISING, SALES, SHOPPING, etc etc etc….. We all know that Thanksgiving is meant to be the time of year that your entire family gathers together to “Give Thanks” and have large Turkey dinners with all the trimmings. The reason why this is in my mind, is that most families do not get the chance to gather together all that often throughout the year.
However this year at least where I live in Louisville KY it went from Halloween to Christmas and Thanksgiving was passed over. This could be due to the fact that I do not live in my home state of Massachusetts anymore, so I’m nowhere near being with the rest of my family. My mom just moved back here last December AFTER Thanksgiving. When we planned our november budget, mom and I completely forgot to factor in a real Thanksgiving meal. So with it only being the two of us we went to Frisch’s Big Boy and had the Breakfast Bar! Sure it’s not traditional at all, but it was a fun adventure at least.
Let me preface this next part by saying that I had written this RANT before, and after at the time I decided to delete it. I saw Rob Paulsen post this link on Facebook for November 28th. So if you click on that link, Rob says basically what I say below, but with much more comedy.
Another thing that I have noticed this year is that starting November 1, 2013 I’d see posts on Facebook like:
“Day 1: I’m thankful for….”
While I think it’s awesome that people count their blessings and everything, why is it only really done THIS time of year? Or the question is why only SHOW IT OFF this time of year? I’m not saying that people do not count their blessings everyday privately. I’m sure they do, but it seems that between 11-1 and 11-30 every year it’s the time to … I was gonna say Brag, but that’s not the right word. I’d ask that why is it only in the month of November that we as a people reveal what we are thankful for?
Giving Thanks should be a 365 days a year kinda thing. Starting January 1 and ending December 31, for whatever year we are in. It just really irks me that the commercialism of Halloween and Christmas drowned out anything to do with Thanksgiving. There are tons of Halloween and Christmas movies, but I can count on one hand how many Thanksgiving films I know. Planes Trains and Automobiles and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. THAT’S IT! Those are the only two real Thanksgiving films I can think of. SURE TV Shows have Thanksgiving episodes etc etc, but you can only watch those so many times.
Here’s what I’m gonna do in 2014, and I hope anyone that reads this will follow my lead. I’m gonna write at some point each day one thing I’m thankful for starting January 1, 2014 and ending December 31, 2014…….WHO’S WITH ME HERE??? #GivingThanksAllYearRound
