The Giving of Thanks?

As I have mentioned before, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Yes, even more so than Christmas. I can hear the gasps of shock and awe you are making, but it's true. I love it. Which brings me to my next point: What the heck happened to it?!?!?

Here we were, humming along through October, looking at the lovely leaves, enjoying apple picking and trick or treating and then, then we were supposed to move on to the cornucopias, the Indian corn, the turkeys, the pilgrims, Plymouth rock and so on and so forth. BUT NO. These days, we go straight from jack-o-lanterns to Santa and his elves. I mean, where is the love for Thanksgiving? The mere thought of my favorite holiday becoming obsolete makes me shake my fist in anger. People, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Sure, everyone LOVES the fact this is a three day week. Everyone LOVES the fact that they get to eat all day long on Thursday and watch football for the rest of the weekend. In the true spirit of the holiday, Thanksgiving GIVES so much to us and yet what do you people do? You decorate for Christmas before Mr. Giving has even come and gone.

I was strolling through a fairly large home store the other day- clearly several days, weeks even, before my beloved holiday- when I witnessed the first sign of Thanksgiving being taken advantage of. There on the floor, in a pile of disregard, were sadly strewn Thanksgiving decorations. Marked 75% off. And above them were the pretty Christmas decorations elegantly displayed and gleaming in all their full price sticker glory. Poor, poor Thanksgiving. We don't even wait until the day after its day of dedication to mark down its celebrations to clearance. These things go on sale weeks in its advance. All to make way for the favored holiday- Christmas and all the decorations that go along with it. Lately, I have noticed the decorations are everywhere and the music- oh, the music! It is blaring proudly in all the shops while Thanksgiving is trying to get a word in edgewise with its one-hit wonder, "We Gather Together"- a lovely hymn that will most likely be overlooked in churches and promptly replaced with "Joy to the World" this week.

Now, don't take the wrong tone in this post. Christmas decorations have their place. They do. Heaven knows I love to trim the tree while listening to carols and drinking my festive Christmas cocktails. I do. But Christmas should have to wait its turn just like all the other holidays have to do before it starts creeping into our livelihood. I mean we don't start buying fireworks while the Easter bunny is trying to hide our eggs! We don't wear our green, four-leaf clovered headband for New Year's Eve! No, we respectfully give each holiday its day. And Thanksgiving deserves the same respect.

So in closing, I ask you, have you given thanks for Thanksgiving? Because if you are enjoying your short week, your paid time off with family, your Macy's day parade, your Cowboys game, your elegantly set table, and your plump turkey with all the fixins, then don't forget to give thanks to the holiday that makes it all possible.