Thanksmas?

I love Thanksgiving. I enjoy all the different foods that we eat. I enjoy the fact that families and friends get together. I enjoy all the Thanksgiving traditions such as the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I like setting aside a day during the year in which to give thanks to God for every blessing that I have been given during the last year. Some things for which I am thankful: life, freedom, friends, family, technology, a job, a warm home in the winter, and the beauty that exists in nature.

What I do not love is the fact that people are trying to take all of that away from me by starting Christmas at the end of October. I worked Halloween this year and on that very night, before all the Halloween candy had been sold, the Christmas merchandise went out. What is going on here? Thanksgiving has become merely a marker for when we should start Christmas shopping. Many families spend Thanksgiving Day decorating their homes for Christmas: putting up trees and lights, baking Christmas cookies, etc. Does not Thanksgiving deserve it's due? Especially with people who have the wrong idea about what Christmas is, we need a day set aside that is devoted entirely to friends, family, and food in which we give thanks for all of those very things.

Now, don't get me wrong, I do love Christmas, but Thanksgiving is a favorite of mine too. However, people have apparently forgotten what Christmas is truly about. Heck, people seem to forget when it is that Christmas actually starts! The Twelve Days of Christmas is not just a song; the Season of Christmas (yes, season) starts on the 25th and ends on the Feast of the Epiphany in January. Why, then, are people putting up Christmas trees on Thanksgiving and taking them down on the 26th of December??? To do it the traditional way, one would put up his Christmas tree on Christmas Eve and take it down after Epiphany in January. I'm not saying that's what my family does, since we usually put our tree up the first or second week of December, but we do leave it up until the Season of Christmas is over.

The commercialism revolving around Christmas nowadays sickens me at times. People trampling each other and getting into fights while Christmas shopping? And for what, to save a few dollars on a potential gift? Give me a break... You will never see me waiting outside of a store at 5 A.M., that's for sure. You would think that the people who try to extend Christmas would at least have the right mindset for doing so: peace on Earth, the spirit of giving (as in giving for it's own sake, not for "exchanging" gifts), and the closeness of friends and family. Not to mention, of course, the religious significance of the holiday. Christmas still has the word Christ in it, so that's what I will be celebrating. Otherwise people should be celebrating "Winter Holiday" or something similar.

At any rate, this post is about Thanksgiving. My family and I enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving, which I had a much larger hand in this year. Since I was off work, I was the one that prepared the turkey, and, if I do say so myself, the turkey was extra delicious. I will definitely enjoy the leftovers for many more days (I have already made myself another plate for lunch and a turkey sandwich for a snack). So, if you want any advice from me, and I know that you do, keep Thanksgiving where it belongs and keep Christmas where it belongs. November should be focused on Thanksgiving and December should be focused on Christmas. You won't see anything in our house related to Christmas until December 1st at the very earliest. No more Thanksmas!