THANKSGIVING COMES FIRST

(http://www.best-norman-rockwell-art.com)

This one is for Suldog who believes... and I do agree...

that the commercialization of the holidays are ruining them

by jamming them all too close together.

Each year he invites bloggers to put in their two cents worth as well

on the subject... this is my contribution.

=:]

My mom was big on decorating for holidays.
We had lots of the tissue paper things that had hard cardboard attached that you could open like fans and fasten
to make pumpkins, hearts, angels, trees, etc. according to the holiday.
Not to mention 5 children's worth of pine cone turkeys, paper machet or clay creations.
Boxes and boxes of the stuff crowded the mysterious closet under our stairs that changed in size
like the room at a fun house.

That was part of the fun of any holiday for all of us
and my mother's time to shine in her own creative way.
Decorating was the way we were all drawn into the fun and it set us up for anticipation of the event.

All of the holidays, were distinctly different in decoration.
Halloween was silly scary fun stuff.
Thanksgiving was more serious. 
Pilgrims, their big buckle shoes and hats, cornucopias, Indian corn ears and gourds that were not carved.
We never mixed the holidays together. 

Halloween came down on November 1st.
Thanksgiving would show up a few days after, but not immediately.

This year, working in the store... the holidays are all mixed up together.
There are Halloween things on mark down mixed in with a much smaller selection of Thanksgiving items and a big selection of Christmas items.
Thanksgiving seems to be shrinking in size each year.

I have my suspicions about that.
I think its greed.
Or perhaps I should say the absence of greed in the holiday itself.

Thanksgiving is  not about "getting something".
Its about being thankful for what you do have, be it grand or not...
because you've been granted another year and made it thus far...
and for being among the people living and those 

remembered  friends and family who sit at the table with us in spirit.

You can spend a fortune on Thanksgiving foods and the odd trinket.
But you can also manage to fix a great meal without going broke too.
It is a holiday that does not fall apart if you don't have much money.
An every-man's holiday.

It doesn't make the money that more "greed driven" holidays do.
Retail has scaled down the importance of Thanksgiving.
Turning their sights on more money as quickly as they can...
beginning at midnight on Thanksgiving...
not wanting to wait a single minute after the clock strikes twelve 

to start dragging in the dough...
while Tom Turkey still digests in our tummies.
Black Friday!  Black indeed!

My mother had it right.  There needs to be a break between them.
A few days that you don't have to dust around the decorations. 
A few days to mull over the delight of what just passed and
take stock of the normal day around you.
When you run them all together that reflection gets lost.

We have no one to blame but ourselves.
As long as we rush out to take advantage of those deals on Black Friday at 2:00 A.M.
or buy to excess on credit, things that we cannot truly afford...
as long as we set aside the meaning behind the holidays
and engage in the greed...
we deserve what we lose in the process.

I can't refuse to work Black Friday or I would lose my  job, which I need.
But I can refuse to participate with my pocket book...
and by savoring my Thanksgiving blessings until November turns to December...
and keep the true meaning of the holiday at my table.