I can't take it anymore! I thought maybe I just wasn't paying attention or perhaps I'm not out of my house enough to notice, but really, now I don't think that's true. I think my initial observation is accurate.
Thanksgiving and all the feelings and talk of it and decorations and preparations are missing. There seems to be a pattern of decline over the last several years, but it feels to me like it's plummeted this year to an all-time low.
Don't get me wrong, I love the whole Christmas season, but it gets a little tiresome and sickening when it drags out from Halloween to New Years. Why have we blended all our holidays into one commercial and materialistic season?
Thanksgiving is the one big holiday that is authentically American (and Canadian, but we celebrate on different days so it doesn't really count) and we're just drowning it in red bows and street wreaths and two months of Christmas carols. It used to be that Santa on his sleigh at the end of Macy's annual Thanksgiving Parade heralded the Christmas season. Now, by the time Santa danders down the road on Thanksgiving, he's nearly a month late, superfluous and irrelevant. I remember when it took until the day after Thanksgiving before you'd see a single Salvation Army bell-ringer (not that I'm against them inherently), or Christmas commercial claiming that "this" is the best most thoughtful gift for that special someone who has everything but a 77-inch wide screen HD plasma TV with a built-in egg poacher and after-market dog cage climate controller.
Speaking of superfluous, I'm giddy to reveal that this commercial hype is propagated by none other than the too-much-half-assed-crap-for-sale capitalist monstrosity Wal-Mart. Seriously, click on the link. As if you didn't know this, but Wal-Mart just wants you to spend more money for longer on cheaper shit. According to Consumer Reports Wal-Mart "has preemptively threatened legal action against any site that post its [Black Friday] ads before November 19th," even though they rescheduled their in store Black Friday sales to November 2, the Friday after Halloween this year, instead of the traditional Black Friday after Thanksgiving. So they're going to sue anyone who puts up their ad early, yet they get to usurp the entire calendar system and slash prices on their whole inventory three weeks before any other retailer? WTF? How is this in the spirit of any holiday - Christmas, Thanksgiving, or otherwise? It's all about gain and getting and sales quotas.
My heart warmed inside me and my faith was nearly restored this evening when I finally saw my first legitimate Thanksgiving commercial this year. It was nostalgic and homey and I could smell the sage and sweet potatoes. I really expected it to be one of those public service commercials telling us how we all really need to spend time as families at the dinner table and there is no better time to set the tradition than at Thanksgiving. I was going to applaud - rock concert style fist pump, even! "Right on!" I was going to yell. Finally someone else appreciated at least part of the spirit behind this great day.
Alas, I was naive and mistaken; in the end, it reared around and bit me like a money-grubbing viper. Stupid Butterball pushing their farm-raised genetically altered hormone injected turkeys! It made me angry to see such wonderful holiday intent exploited as marketing.
FYI: Here are some links for Black Friday Ads.
Comments (1)
Jonathan had his post op doctors appointment today and they had Christmas music playing the whole time. Guess everyone is in a hurry this year :)
Posted by K, Myers | November 19, 2007 5:24 PM
Posted on November 19, 2007 17:24