I am writing this article in support of a holiday I love: Thanksgiving. I love that we have one day a year dedicated solely to being grateful for what you have, to surrounding yourself with friends and family that you love and expressing your love and appreciation for them.
It saddens me to report that too often Thanksgiving gets lost between the highly commercialized Halloween and Christmas. Viral posts on social media joke that the Christmas season officially starts the minute that Halloween is over, skipping over Thanksgiving entirely.
Just the other day in class, a girl started playing Christmas carols from her computer in class. Even without mentioning how inconsiderate it is to play music out loud while other people are working, it is additionally inconsiderate to assume that everyone in the room celebrates Christmas (or not caring if they don’t), or that everyone is okay with hearing Christmas carols in class on the second day of November (or not caring if they don’t).
I, for one, am very much not okay with hearing Christmas carols in class on the second day of November. It is my belief that the Christmas season should not start until after Thanksgiving is over: No trees, no lights, no music, and no candy canes until Black Friday at the earliest.
Speaking of Black Friday, what does it say about us as a society that we skip right through our one day of the year dedicated to expressing gratitude for what we have on our way to a day dedicated to pushing aside anyone who stands between us and sale items that we probably don’t actually need? Christmas has become so commercialized that Christmas shopping officially starts on Black Friday, which now starts on Thanksgiving in many stores.
I understand that stores may want to skip right over Thanksgiving on the way to Christmas, since there is nothing to buy for Thanksgiving except food, but I look forward to it every year and wish more people appreciated the holiday as much as I do.
Thanksgiving is my second favorite holiday, just behind Valentine’s Day, because they both are about expressing love and appreciation for people that you care about (Valentine’s Day wins because I really love pink and hearts. I’m also a huge fan of chocolate).
But Thanksgiving has a parade, and pumpkin pie, which are also great. And my mother says that people would be a lot happier if they gave thanks every day, but since making every day a day of thanksgiving is a big commitment, one day out of the whole year seems like a reasonable request.
Yes, the history of Thanksgiving is pretty problematic. We all know that. But the sentiment that remains is a good one. We don’t sit down with all of our loved ones to celebrate how white settlers stole land from Native Americans and in exchange gave them deadly diseases against which they had no immunity, we celebrate giving thanks for everyone and everything in our lives that we appreciate.
So, out of love for Thanksgiving, I request that we all wait to start our Christmas season celebrations until after Thanksgiving is over. I think we will all be happier for it!