Listen carefully… hear the clock a-tick-tick-ticking? Better hurry up! You’re already a day (or more) into the Thanksgiving season and you have so much to do! “No Dave”, you correct me, “Thanksgiving’s just one day (or at most a long weekend) way-ay-ay at the end of the month… I still have plenty of time to prepare!” No you don’t. Junk that perception, online friends, because the times they are a-changin’. I, blogger Dave, hereby decree Thanksgiving to be three weeks… and the season’s already underway. So c’mon – get grateful already!
It’s fitting I’m writing this post on Halloween, “… the conclusion of spooky season…” as Lyssy in the City referred to it. And isn’t it true? Just like Christmas, the air goes out of the holiday balloon the very next day. Cinderella’s carriage turns back into a pumpkin at midnight (ironically). There is no “residual” spooky season on November 1st. Halloween died the night before.
Retailers are determined to steamroll Halloween and Thanksgiving with the Christmas season, of course. The artificial trees and decorations were available for purchase at Costco and Lowes this year before the Halloween candy even colored the shelves. As I said in Third-Wheel Meal two years ago, Thanksgiving is fighting an uphill battle between the ever-expanding seasons before and after. It’s like a sandwich with two massive pieces of bread but not much in between.
Thanksgiving is not just another holiday in my book; it’s a uniquely American holiday. It’s the one we’ve been celebrating in the U.S. for 160 years thanks to the persistence of one Sarah Josepha Hale (who also wrote “Mary Had a Little Lamb”). Hale, along with Abraham Lincoln’s stroke of the presidential pen, made sure the holiday was “permanent… an American custom and institution”. Gives this juncture in the holiday season a little more respect, wouldn’t you say?
Like an Advent calendar, I propose we take twenty-three days to be grateful for what we have. Open the little cardboard door on any given morning of November and the question will always be the same: What are you thankful for today? Surely you can come up with twenty-three things. Or how about twenty-three people? Wouldn’t it be something if you told one person how grateful you are to have them in your life… every day until Thanksgiving Day?
As with Christmas, it’s not the wrapping; it’s the gift inside. Thanksgiving goes way deeper than turkey and football. If you’re planning a trip to America and don’t know much about Thanksgiving, VisitTheUsa.com is not helping my cause. The website reduces Thanksgiving into turkey and pie, Turkey Trots, parades, football, the pardoning of a single turkey, “shop ’til you drop”, and the travel challenges of a four-day weekend. Really? That’s the meaning of America’s Thanksgiving?
Maybe it would help if moviemakers and songwriters joined my cause. I mean, think about it. Halloween movies come to mind without much thought (with some, like A Nightmare on Elm Street, approaching ten sequels). Hallmark churns out Christmas movies faster than you churn out Christmas cookies. But are there any movies about Thanksgiving? Well, yes actually, just this year we have Thanksgiving (the movie). But please, don’t seek out the trailer. This garbage has nothing to do with gratitude and everything to do with gratuitous violence.
I was going to make the same case for music. Halloween has you dancing to “Thriller” and “Monster Mash”. Christmas has you “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”. There is no “Thanksgiving carol”. But then I remembered Amy Grant’s “‘Til the Season Comes ‘Round Again” (my wife’s favorite). It’s a song about Christmas, make no mistake, but you could argue there’s a little Thanksgiving dressing mixed into the first verse:
Come and gather around at the table
In the spirit of family and friends
And we’ll all join hands and remember this moment
‘Til the season comes ’round again
Get what I’m saying? Take the next three weeks and find the true meaning of Thanksgiving. Like Halloween, the treats will still be there on November 23rd. Like Christmas, you’ll still have the stress of travel and getting things done. Those holidays are about finding your inner child. This one’s about finding your inner adult. So c’mon – get grateful already!
Some content sourced from Wikipedia, “the free encyclopedia”.
Life In A Word 
Agree, Dave. Things are moving so quickly. We barely finished Halloween and people are asking if it’s too early to put up their Xmas tree. WAIT, what happened to Thanksgiving!? I do feel we need to slow down and look forward to Thanksgiving. Let’s see what happens. 🦃🍁
LikeLiked by 1 person
If we could somehow compartmentalize each of the three holidays into its given month, I think we’d have a more fulfilling season. Three months, three equally-weighted holidays. That’s how I’d like to see it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It used to be that way until Retail wanted to make more money, have more time to sell for each holiday. Then they started having stores open on Thanksgiving, when that used to be a special holiday.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well said sir – and yes just the right song.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have a thing for Amy Grant songs (esp. her Christmas music), but “‘Til the Season…” is Thanksgiving-appropriate all the same.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiments here Dave. We exit Halloween and where’s the house on fire that we need to march right toward Christmas? It’s all too much in my opinion – it becomes the season of excess to see how much you can eat, drink and be merry, spend on gifts or glam for the holidays. The real meaning for the family gatherings is lost for all the reasons you cite. In Canada, they celebrate Thanksgiving the same day as Columbus Day here in the U.S. – so a gathering of family and friends is more special, rather than the kick-off to a holiday season of excess.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I do like the timing of Canadian Thanksgiving better than ours. The end of November is arbitrary anyway, because no one really knows what time of year the pilgrims celebrated the very first Thanksgiving. I did read holiday shopping numbers are forecast to be down this year because of a challenging economy. Hopefully that’ll have a few more people focusing on the right reasons for the holidays.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, Canadian Thanksgiving is all about the harvest plus family theme, but it’s not as big of a holiday there as Thanksgiving is over here in the States. The end of November ties in nicely with holiday shopping, so it’s a month-long shopping fest. I remember Black Friday shopping being introduced years ago and now it is Gray Thursday that is the draw as to sales. “Hate to eat and run, but ….” The UAW strike was expected to impact the already sagging economy, but the UAW strikers will now get retroactive pay for when they were out, plus get to keep their strike pay, so the strike will not impact them like originally thought and put a damper on holiday sales. That’s a nice thought for family gatherings that are meaningful as many people have forgotten the real reason for the holidays.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have just the thing you need: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds-2s03wKps
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Just the thing” indeed! Thanks for the LOL, Betsy (and nice to see others are joining my campaign). If I’d known about this video I could’ve just posted the link and saved myself several hundred words!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha. Darn. Well, it was an amusing post. And I’m glad I could share that vid with someone who would appreciate it. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow you quoted a celebrity 😉 I am guilty of being ready for Christmas on November 1st, I have already started listening to some Christmas tunes. In my defense there’s so many movies to watch and sights to see that I have to start early, and decorating is a lot of work so I need more time to enjoy it. I do love the idea of a gratitude advent calendar though.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your comment brings to mind Johnny Mathis and “We Need A Little Christmas (right this very minute)”. I’d argue we can never get enough of the Christmas season, esp. in trying times, so the longer the better. I just hope it doesn’t push Thanksgiving all the way off the podium some day 🙂
LikeLike
Unless turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing get cancelled I think Thanksgiving is safe 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hear, hear! I’m right there with you: Like an Advent calendar, I propose we take twenty-three days to be grateful for what we have. I like November because I consider it a time of quiet reflection before the Christmas/NYE hoopla takes over everyone’s every waking moment, but I know you’re right. Thanksgiving has become the ever shrinking white stuff in an Oreo cookie of Halloween & Christmas chocolate wafers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Now that’s an even better analogy than a sandwich, Ally. It just occurred to me, as much as I want to hold Nabisco accountable for false advertising on “Double Stuf Oreos”, the “Single Stuf” are probably shrinking in direct proportion, so… 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great post Dave!
I specially love: “So c’mon – get grateful already!” – Yes Sir! I will!!
A blessed Thanksgiving to you and your family!
LikeLiked by 1 person
My father was raised on the east coast, and his father came from New England, so Thanksgiving always ran deep and strong in our family. Perhaps Thanksgiving has lost some ground, because I remember it being the subject of a Charlie Brown holiday special when I was a kid.
The part that irritates me is how the “Black Friday” sales have started bleeding forward so that they start in the late afternoon of Thanksgiving day. Dudes, really? Nothing says family togetherness on the one day that promotes it like half of those over 15 rushing off to the stores before the plates can get rinsed off.
As for music, call me an old traditionalist, but I am quite happy with the old hymn “We Gather Together”.
LikeLike