Thanksgiving Orphan
I can’t believe Thanksgiving is in two days. Thanksgiving is almost the forgotten holiday in our family. It’s sandwiched between Halloween, the world’s best holiday in my unbiased opinion, and Christmas, my wife’s favorite holiday. By the time we take down and put away all the Halloween stuff, it’s time to get out the Christmas decorations. We use to wait until after Thanksgiving to put up our Christmas stuff. But with three nuclear-powered kids running around the house, it’s much easier for us to start early and gradually put up the Christmas decorations instead of trying to put them all up in one weekend.
It’s a shame and I don’t think we are alone when it comes to jump-starting Christmas. On a day when we should be thankful for all the wonderful people in our lives and all the good things that has happened to us, many of us are thinking about Christmas. I don’t think our kids even know what Thanksgiving is really about. We’re bad parents.
In a way, retailers are partly to blame for the snubbing of Thanksgiving. It seems like retailers go directly from Halloween to Christmas. I remember seeing Christmas items on display at Target back in October. Halloween wasn’t even over yet. Then there’s all those day-after-Thanksgiving sales. Some people even spend Thanksgiving outside a store so they could be first in line. What is wrong with us?
Thanksgiving is like a holiday orphan. Back when George Washington was President, Thanksgiving was celebrated on November 26th. When Abraham Lincoln was President, he declared the final Thursday of November to be Thanksgiving Day. Later, Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving to the next-to-last Thursday of November. The reason? So merchants could have a longer period of time to sell Christmas stuff. Back then, it wasn’t cool to start advertising Christmas before Thanksgiving was over. Boy has that changed! In 1941, Thanksgiving was finally moved to the fourth Thursday of November. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was moved again. I don’t think the day after Halloween is realistic, but the third Thursday is possible. We gotta stretched the Christmas season and pump up the economy, right?
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Huh, I never thought of it that way. I guess it is just thrown in there. I enjoy it though. Spending time with family and eating w/o the hustle and bustle of presents everywhere.
I know; Thanksgiving always sneaks-up on me and seems to pass in a hurry. We’re so bombarded by Halloween and Christmas marketing; those holidays tend to overshadow poor Thanksgiving, with its limited retailing possibilities.
But don’t worry; I know what Thanksgiving’s about. It’s about turkey and football, right? ;)
Yeah, turkey and football, and being thankful for said turkey and football!
Do you celebrate Chinese New Year too?
thanks for visiting my blog!
Yich, we do sort of celebrate Chinese New year. We usually go out for dim sum.
the Beavs play at 12:30 pacific time? … which has arrived.. gotta go..