Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
person holding rectangular black wooden photo frame with Give. Thanks. print
person holding rectangular black wooden photo frame with Give. Thanks. print
Simon Maage/Unsplash
Life

How Our Capitalistic Society Has Started Skipping Over Thanksgiving

Cheyenne Oakes
Rachel Johnson
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at WVU chapter.

The hustle and bustle of the holiday season is in full swing. Actually, it started on Nov. 1. It seemed that overnight, stores swapped Halloween costumes for Christmas trees, with some stores even putting out Christmas decor before Halloween. Each year, it seems that the Christmas season begins earlier than the last, and with just under four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, stores have decided to practically skip over the holiday. One drastic example is the Christmas section on the Target website features 17 different categories of Christmas shopping including just a section for Christmas storage. This is a stark contrast to the Thanksgiving section of the Target website which features a mere five categories of Thanksgiving shopping. 

In terms of money alone, this makes sense. According to an article by LendEdu.com, Americans reported that they anticipated spending just over $175 on Thanksgiving dinner in 2018. This is compared to an article by Investopedia.com where it was found that Americans expected to spend around $885 just on Christmas gifts in 2018. It’s not shocking that stores want to capitalize on this fact by encouraging Christmas shopping as early as possible. 

We have seen this capitalization throughout the last ten years as stores have begun their Black Friday sales Thanksgiving night and, in the last few years, even Thanksgiving morning. While shopping after eating our feast can be fun, it seems as though businesses have encouraged us to skip the celebration altogether. 

 

 

While it seems that every store has started participating, there has been some backlash to this early shopping frenzy as according to an article from The Black Friday.com, stores such as Bed, Bath and Beyond, H&M, Barnes and Noble and Nordstrom, among others, have committed to staying closed on Thanksgiving, allowing their employees to spend time with family and friends on the holiday. 

With Thanksgiving and Christmas quickly approaching, it can be easy to get caught up in the stress of holiday shopping and planning and forget the reason we all stop to celebrate Thanksgiving in the first place. Taking a day out of our hectic schedules to spend time with family and celebrate all that we’re thankful for has been a long-standing tradition for hundreds of years within our country. Our capitalist society isn’t slowing down anytime soon, and the holiday season is bound to start earlier as each year passes, but it is important to take a moment to step back from the chaos and appreciate the time spent with others before we snatch up this year’s best deal. 

 

—

Edited by Geena Anderson

 

Cheyenne Oakes is a junior at West Virginia University, majoring in Public Relations and minoring in Political Science and Women and Gender Studies.
Rachel is a graduate student at WVU majoring in journalism with minors in Appalachian studies, history and political science. In addition to writing for Her Campus, she is also a publicity intern for Arts and Entertainment and a news intern for Univerisity Relations. She is from Princeton, West Virginia and loves her state and its beautiful mountains. She is passionate about many things including dogs, musicals and the Mountaineers.