A picture in our local paper this week made me shake my head. The picture was of a man sitting in a camping chair, reading his paper (on Monday of this week of Thanksgiving) waiting in line for the bargain shopping to begin on Thursday night. I am very much a progressive person, staying ahead of the trends and embracing change but I also like some traditional things as well. One of them is celebrating the holidays one at a time. Our society has been rolling out the celebration of Christmas before Thanksgiving but typically by only a few days. Now it's starts the month of November and even worse, are scenes like the one I described above. We as a country have allowed commercialization to seep through our society, especially through social media and the internet. To me this is pretty scary and somewhat sterile in showing up as Americans.
Yes, we all have choices we can make but doesn't it seem a little too commercial to be worrying about being the first in line for Black Friday (which really is now Thursday night) to grab a bargain vs. getting excited about upcoming family and friends celebrating the day of Thanksgiving. Even if you don't have family and are by yourself, you could invite someone alone over to share a meal or go help serve food to the less fortunate. Some people can't wait to start decorating for Christmas. Even in the condo building I live in, the Christmas tree is already in the lobby being readied for decorations and it's only November 20th.
All I can do is allow people to be who they are and think what they think and be OK with that. I know I am looking forward to simply spending some quality time with dear friends, enjoying home cooked food, some wine and some laughs.
As parents and grandparents, it's part of our purpose to instill values and life experiences on our children so they understand the importance of some traditions. Great to shop for bargains, decorate, prepare for Christmas but why not wait until after the day of being grateful of our country being formed.
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