I’m usually not one to rant, but this has gotten out of hand.
Whatever happened to simply enjoying the holidays? And when I say holiday, I’m going to go ahead and emphasize the word DAY.
It’s the HoliDAY Season
Look, I know that everyone is super busy, and there is a deep-seated need to make all that holiday prep work worth more than just one day of festivities.
Not only are you spending an outrageous amount of time making Pintrest-worthy wreaths and autumnal table settings, but you’ve also got the kids and other family members begging for your ever-fleeting time. Then there’s the cooking, plus you have that little thing called a job, so there is all that business and the end-of-year crap that comes with it.
So I get it, either it’s we don’t have enough time in the day to get everything done, or we simply don’t want all this hard work to go out in the blaze of a single day. As a result, we have inadvertently expanded our holidays into months.
The Holiday Months or Months
You know I’m not crazy. Let’s look at the facts.
October 1 starts it off with Halloween month, and as soon as the date hits you’ll start seeing ghosts and pumpkins, candy sales, and zombie movies. Poor Halloween is barely and rarely celebrated on the actual date. It’s usually replaced with the best day to throw a party, a night when the kids don’t have school the next day, or preferably the best friendly-weather night as long as it’s near the actual date that works, right?
A soon as we’ve had our candy fill, we throw out our jack-o-lantern pumpkins and replace them with real ones. We slap Pilgrim hats on them and immediately start letting the world know how thankful we are. I could, and probably should, at some point go off on a tangent about the true spirit of Thanksgiving, but this post is about the timing of our celebrations. Anyway you get the idea – November equals Thanksgiving Month (also maybe pie month, but that again is another side story.)
Here’s where things get a little iffy. Over the past few years, Christmas Month (because given the evidence above we can only assume that December is Christmas Month) has snuck into November. GASP! It’s true. You’ll occasionally hear the off-holiday tune on the radio, you’ll definitely see ornaments in the stores (that starts way in mid-November), but the most disturbing thing is that the start of holiday shopping begins the day after Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving Shopping
Yes, yes I know this has been happening since the 1960’s, but unfortunately it’s gotten a bit out of hand. I mean, when people are getting trampled and killed due to a sale at some store, it’s time to take another look at our priorities.
Unfortunately this year, things are getting even worse. Stores are actually opening on Thanksgiving Day for Black Friday sales. WTF? It’s true. Here’s a link to prove my sanity from the folks over at CNBC.
This, my friends, is where the ranting begins.
What the hell?!
To the businesses that are doing this: Are you so money- and wealth-oriented that you are pulling thousands of people away from their family and friends Thanksgiving night to work a cash register for you?
Furthermore, how evil are you to market this to consumers as an awesome money-saving event? It’s just a way to stay one step ahead of your competitors. Answer me this: when is it going to stop? When the fights get so bad it looks like a Mad Max dome? Is Black Friday just going to be the month of November from now on? Screw Thanksgiving, let’s just call it ThanksShopping Day.
Damn, someone put their moral foot down!
To the people who are shopping Thanksgiving night: Dude, shame on you. I understand you want to save some money, hey who doesn’t, but don’t you think it can wait a few more hours.
There are 25 days until Christmas, which to me is plenty of shopping. Hey, you want a really good deal? Wait until December 23rd when everything is so heavily marked down because they’ve ordered too much inventory.
However if you do find yourself at the register Thanksgiving night, I want you to look that worker in the eyes. The eyes of someone who has missed out on spending time with family, who currently lacks the sleepy coma-inducing fill that comes with eating too much turkey and dressing, and one who is missing out on some excellent football and pie. All of this so you could get an extra 10 percent off that cookware set.
This has got to stop. Let’s stop crossing months. Heck, let’s try to reduce the holiday months into weeks. Let’s take a moment to reflect on the day itself before going straight off and starting a new one.
This Year
So, this year I’m going to take some time and enjoy the holidays for what they are. A time with family, friends, food, and festivities. I might even do some shopping, but I’ll tell you one thing: it will be on Saturday at local businesses at a decent mid-afternoon hour like God intended.