Alright, I'm finally ready to post this. I'm sorry, it's going to be TL;DR.
You know what really
grinds my gears?
People Celebrating/Decorating/Advertising/Exploiting
Christmas BEFORE ThanksgivingThis is Ally's #1 Biggest pet peeve, of all time, and could possibly be worse than forgetting her Birthday.
Background: I was born November 23rd 1987, which is a Monday, the Monday which precedes Thanksgiving in fact. As the first born of the youngest children in both my parents families, I was a special little baby and being born during an already instituted season of family togetherness meant my Birthday became a center of the family calendar. People I may not see for months at a time were always available for my Birthday. My 2nd Birthday was particularly special as it actually fell on the Thanksgiving Day. Every 6 years since then I get to have Thanksgiving for my Birthday. As I grew up I gained a very strong respect for Thanksgiving and what it mean to our Country and our society. As someone who has both Naitve American and Anglo-Saxon heritage it is a great memory for unity and for the establishment of civilized and prosperous nationalism. We give thanks for what we have and bless our friends, neighbors, family and strangers that they may have all they need.Before I begin my rant; know that I LOVE Christmas with a firey passion that cannot be contained. I am not a humbug in the slightest! I just think everything has it's time... and Christmas shant come before Thanksgiving.
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Chapter 1: "Christmas is TWO FRIGGEN MONTHS away!"I am coming up on what some call a "Golden" Birthday. I will be 23 on the 23rd of this month. And that falls pretty close to my favorite holiday; THANKSGIVING. However, what I have seen around the Walmarts, the Safeways the Pier1Imports', FAOSchwartzs, the
Macys (More on
them later) is CHRISTMAS decor, CHRISTMAS sales, CHRISTMAS adverts!
CHRISTMAS! CHRISTMAS! CHRISTMAS! And it starts on November 1st! A whole 55 DAYS before Christmas even occurs! Does it really require 55 DAYS to remember Christmas? Is the Industry of consumerist prize and gift giving SO DESPERATE for funding that it needs 55 DAYS to propagate what was once a Pagan/Judeo-Christian Holiday? A RELIGIOUS EVENT? I think we, the masses and generation of 5 second attention spans should no better! We can't contemplate Christmas this early! It will drag on and be devoured before it ever begins! And yet, the stores are filled with CHRISTMAS carols and laughing Santa's and Candy Canes well before the TREES are even available! TWO FRIGGEN MONTHS? What in the name of all that is good and gracious makes us/marketing companies think that business model is more attractive than there normal business model of 2 week windows with a pre-week viral notion and a post-week recouperation advert?
Chapter 2: "We are NOT the Nation of Christmas, we are the United States of America"
School children can tell you; THANKSGIVING is a National Holiday, it is a statement of the unity we share with our brothers from other mothers - the tradition of camaraderie and thankfulness that transcends race, status or knowledge. We give THANKS for once in the year, as a nation, for our freedoms, for our families and for our food.
Yet this NATIONAL celebration, that requires no belief in GOD or JESUS or SANTA or a the GODS/GODDESS of THE SOLSTICE is underrated, disproportionate to a religious and consumerist holiday that happens well after it! A Holiday at the same level as the FOURTH OF JULY which we celebrate in drunken abundance, is under-written for an International Celebration.
We are the ONLY country that Celebrates THANKSGIVING on this day, for this reason. No one else celebrates the day that American Pilgrims were thoughtfully and selflessly invited into the open arms of the Natives and treated with the kindness and the familiarity we can only dream of achieving in ourselves. We look to those memories as HERITAGE. No one else does that. Other countries have similar events and Holidays, but this one is OURS. If we do not Celebrate it, who will?
Chapter 3: "There is room in the Calendar and Store Shelves for us ALL"All I'm asking for is a little more respect for such a special Holiday. Your grocery stores attempt to bridge the gap with week long sales on Turkey and Canned Cranberry Sauce... but the BLACK FRIDAY ads get more respect than these!
The top Thanksgiving Day story this year? Not that people are raising money for the homeless and hungry to support our nation, Not that Republicans and Democrats will sit down and eat a meal to foster bi-partisanship in the government. No the top story about Thanksgiving? THE PRICE OF A TURKEY HAS GONE UP.
Really? REALLY? I mean REALLY? Is that what Thanksgiving has come down to? The price of your fowl??? Forgive me whilst I go cry this atrocity on the roof tops! Even Charlie Brown himself would be appalled!
It's simple;
Nov 1st - Thanksgiving morning is the Celebration of our Nations forerunners and the Natives who showed us that we have SO MUCH to be thankful for, and that we owe it to our neighbors to share that bounty and rejoice in the harvest. Unity, Thankfulness, Remembrance. Valuable traits for our children and us to remember.
Thanksgiving Day - December 25th is for The Celebration of the Christmas/Holiday season. Hang your stockings, trim the house with mistletoe and garland - buy a tree, sing Christmas carols, buy a yule log, get some dreidels and a Hanukkiya or just enjoy the solstice air.
Chapter 4: "It isn't Christmas Season until Macy's/Santa says so" There was a time, when the largest department store in America, Macy's was on my side about this. They held of Christmas Lane and all the Decorations, ready and waiting to be put up Thanksgiving Eve. So that on Black Friday, when shoppers arrived the Magic of Macy's would instantly be coated with SugarPlums and CandyCanes. It was a perfect marketing scheme that tide in with one of the biggest events Macy's puts on; THE MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE.
Historically, you knew it was the CHRISTMAS Season once Santa appeared on his sleigh in your television, laughing on your radio, or right in front of you as he made his way down 34th Street. In fact, this is one of the hallmarks of the 2nd longest running parade in the history of America.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macy's_Thanksgiving_Day_Parade Yet Macy's has shewed away from their traditions. Now Christmas Corner and the Holiday decor start even BEFORE Halloween is over! And yet the tradition of Santa Clause remains... they still "say" its the official start of the Christmas/Holiday season... but they don't give Santa the satisfaction anymore. Like a puppet Monarch, he's only their for show. Destroying generations worth of traditions and memories in the process.
Chapter 5: "A Lengthy Conclusion" I growl every time I
have to enter a store that willingly participates in the desecration of Thanksgiving, by shunting it off to a back corner of the store or 2 shelves worth of Cornucopia. I boycott most stores outright from Nov 1st - the day of Thanksgiving. But I am by no means unreasonable. I'm willing to compromise with the mass market moguls of the world:
If we could go back to starting the "Holiday Season" Thanksgiving Day, and decorate the night before, and make the Thanksgiving weekend the official start of your holidays, I'd be okay with that! My family personally begins playing Christmas music in the house the MOMENT Santa appears on the screen! From then on till the big day my Car plays NOTHING ELSE. I decorate to the NINES and spend the season in a glitter gorgeous wonderland! And because it lasts just 1 month long, I never get tired of the songs, the imagery or the smell of cinnamon or chestnuts or candy canes wafting in my house! I LOVE IT that much more! I buy into the Christmas Eve madness and I participate in the sales...
BUT ONLY AFTER MY BELOVED THANKSGIVING!
[end: rant seq//22.9]
TL;DR - SONOFAKRISKRINGLE!!! GIVE ME BACK MY THANKSGIVING! STOP SHOVING CHRISTMAS DOWN MY THROAT BEFORE I'VE HAD SOME TURKEY!!!
Thanks... I'm really glad to get that off my chest...
-Ally
