Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Thanksgiving Haters

After a visit to the local big-block hardware store, I was moved to re-post a blog I'd written around this time last year...



Thanksgiving. It’s the ‘lost’ holiday.

It was the end of October when it hit me. I walked into a home improvement store and what did I see? Christmas-topia…Fake lighted Christmas trees, ten foot inflatable Santa’s and Frosty the Snowmen, animatronic talking reindeer, and ornaments galore. But not even a paper cutout of a turkey to decorate the yard with (not that I would).

And then there’s the retail angle where stores are effectively erasing Thanksgiving by starting Black Friday ON Thanksgiving. Sure, maybe it’s great for some shoppers, but what about the employees who work for these companies? Shouldn’t they get some holiday time with their families too? Apparently over 190,000 people think they should, according to this petition.

The last straw for me though was laid down by a local radio station that began playing 24-hour Christmas music in early November, with another station advertising they’ll start doing the same thing tomorrow.

Are you kidding?

We haven’t even hit Thanksgiving for crying out loud, but all I hear or see that’s holiday related is about Christmas. When I was a kid I didn’t see Christmas decor until after the big turkey day, and you could forget about Christmas music until December rolled around.

Thanksgiving has gotten the royal shaft.

-J.M. Park