Are you tired of your Thanksgiving being hijacked by Christmas retail hysteria? I sure am.
Seems that from October 31st on (and sometimes even before) everywhere you go, you could swear it was already Christmas. There are Christmas lights and decorations already up on city lamp posts and in every store you walk into. Drug stores are switching out Halloween candy for red and green M&Ms. Television is overloaded with holiday specials and ads promoting Christmas discounts. But perhaps the most offensive…Christmas music is piped into retail stores on the 1st of November!
What ever happened to Thanksgiving? Remember that time of year when you could take a breath and relax with your family and friends, and perhaps even think about all the blessings in your life? Now, Thanksgiving is just a prelude to “Black Friday” – a term that was used ago only internally just a few years ago and referred to the time of year retailer’s financial sheets began to show a profit. Now, the term is as ubiquitous as Santa Claus….and used to promote Christmas shopping just as successfully.
No one I know likes what’s happening here. I hear people complain about it all the time. Let’s stop complaining and start doing something about it. Let’s take Thanksgiving back from the retailers and marketers!
How? First of all, don’t go out on Thanksgiving evening to shop for Christmas. Resist the temptation to even shop online on Thursday. Keep the day inviolate. If you will be with relatives and / or friends, really be with them. Connect. Here’s a bold conversation starter – ask each person what they are most grateful for in their life. That will get the crankiest of relatives to start thinking in a new direction.
Other ideas
- First thing in the morning, write a list of 50 things you are grateful for. Ambitious? Go for 100.
- Take your kids to a food bank or homeless shelter and be of service to those folks. Nothing will open your eyes to the blessings you have in your life more than serving those less fortunate. Don’t have kids? Take a friend and go.
- If you are having guests at your house, have slips of paper and pens at the front door and have them write one thing they are grateful for as soon as they walk in. Then, put them all in a bowl and have guests pull one out to read at the dinner table (the idea is to read someone else’s.)
- Start a “gratitude bowl” and have beads in one bowl labeled “take beads from here” and one empty bowl labeled “place beads here.” Invite your guests to take the beads from the one bowl and focus on that for which they are grateful (one bead for each gratitude) and place them in the empty bowl. Kids love doing this too.
- Create a “gratitude daisy chain.” Again, use slips of paper and have everyone write
one gratitude on each slip of paper, then read their own at the dinner table. After dinner, create a daisy chain using the slips of paper, fastening them with tape. Then, drape around a window, mantle or door frame.
We can do this people! We can take Thanksgiving back and reserve this day for focusing on the many blessings in our lives and expressing our heart-felt gratitude to our family, friends, neighbors, communities and God (or Universal Intelligence if you prefer.)
If you’re with me on this, please forward this post to everyone you know. Let’s start a movement! Let’s let the retailers know they can no longer hijack what is important to us.
I am grateful for you!