Can you remember the days when Thanksgiving meant waking to a small breakfast then smelling delicious food cooking all day as Mom did a dizzying dance in the kitchen, putting on this pot and adding that pan to the oven in a carefully orchestrated ballet of perfect timing?
Friends and family would start to arrive just as the parades were getting close to the end and Santa was about to be announced... calls ringing through the house in quick bursts of cold air from the opening door. Coats coming off and either slipping into closets or piling up on a bed as voices rise with excitement... adults trying to hug and not trip over the excited children as they dashed about.
The big moment would start to get near... the tinkling of ice cubes in glasses as water was readied, a train of eager helpers who were mostly getting in the way of each other as platters and bowls of steaming delights were carried to the table and arranged strategically so that everyone's favorite dish would be close at hand.
Then you would sit and the turkey would be carved, bowls passed hand to hand as plates would swiftly fill then the moment when thanks were given and silence as the first bites were savored.
Talk would slowly start to fill the room again as a second helping of this was put on the plate... maybe just a bit more of that... diets on hiatus for "the holiday" because meals like this come only once a year.
After dinner it would be a slow shuffle to a comfortable chair... stomachs full to aching, belts loosened (though the smart wore something with elastic to expand with comfort) and a few half-hearted mentions of maybe taking a stroll to "walk off that meal" knowing full well that the only walking to be done would be for coffee and pie then home to bed.
It was a day to show thanks for the bounty of life with a grand display of gluttony followed by days of left-overs as dishes were reborn to new delights of soups and casseroles or seasonal sandwiches.
Something changed, though...
Meals were rushed...
Why?
Because this year the "Black Friday" sales... that day of greed and spendthrift spending frenzy... started the night of the day we are supposed to be giving thanks for the things we have.
"Black Friday" has morphed from a simple day of sales to 'officially start the Christmas Season' to a spending feeding frenzy with all the grace of sharks picking off anything in sight without caring about what is being bitten. In a feeding frenzy a shark will bite anything and everything... and in the Black Friday frenzy people will drop all semblance of civility and humanity to purchase things that they seem to value more than human life or dignity.
What started as a single day of blood-lust spending has grown... now Thanksgiving night is no longer for that bite of pie and turkey induced stupor. No... it is for rushing to a store and shoving people, punching them and trampling them to get the item that *everyone* must have.
The poor workers are often victims of the inhumanity and not only are forced away from their own families and homes by corporate greed and the greed of consumers and customers who cannot wait a single night but are verbally and physically attacked in thanks for it.
Now add "Small Business Saturday" and "Cyber Monday" to the mix...
I can understand that Small Business cannot compete with the big chain stores and their sales and a special day set aside to encourage people to visit small local business and buy from them has my moral support... but Cyber Monday??? Seriously, people...
I am all for a good sale... heck, some people call themselves 'frugal' but I am happily cheap and do not like to ever pay full price for anything but a line has to be drawn and people have to stop buying into the idea that the Holiday Season is all about people getting the most crap to give and who can give the most expensive crap for the least amount of money.
Think it is not 'crap'?
Can you even remember what you got last year for Christmas and how long you actually used the items?
There might be one or two presents you remember... and use... but you have to admit that most of what is given is fad 'crap' that is enjoyed for a few days or a few weeks then finds it's way into a closet or under a bed before getting donated, given away, re-gifted, exchanged or simply tossed out.
Want to know why so many people are losing the "Holiday Spirit" and are often "over it" long before the holiday arrives?
I will tell you why.... because it has somehow become about greed at the expense of everything else and people have completely lost the idea of the beauty of the season.
We grew from children who loved to take small torn bits of tissue paper and glue and make snowmen on construction paper to decorate our rooms... rings of paper turned into chains to string in festive delight... laying on our bellies on the floor the first night the tree was lit to watch how the twinkling lights reflected off the ornaments and counting down the days then minutes to Christmas morning to adults who try to out-do last year and out decorate the neighbors.
We gave up tradition for the sake of 50% off a game that will be played for a week or two until the next new big game comes out and the child wants to trade in that old used game for the new one.
When I was a child a Monopoly game was not traded in... it did not go out of style in a week or two when a new version came out. A jump rope became a tug-o-war rope or a rope to pull a sled and was used until it frayed and broke. A game of jacks not only helped with hand eye coordination but doubled as a way to set booby-traps for siblings and toys ran on imagination and not power cords.
It is no wonder that so many suffer from depression this time of year... we sold our wonder and indentured the Sugar Plum Fairy for the chance to have indigestion in a store Thanksgiving night as we shove another human being to the ground and step on them so we can save a few dollars.
Want to get some of that old feeling back?
Do something about it... decorate a tree outside for the birds with strings of popcorn, cheerios and pine cones smeared with peanut butter and rolled in bird seed. Have everyone draw a name of a family member and make something home-made for them as a gift. Drive around town and look at the decorations then have hot cocoa and cookies with the kids as you decide as a family who has the best decorations then give the winning place a gift (a plate of cookies... a candle... sing them a song).
