Saving Thanksgiving

Don't Give it Up for a Flat Screen....
Don’t Give it Up for a Flat Screen….

Tomorrow, as I bow my head and give thanks for the blessings in my life, there will be a new addition.  I will be giving thanks for Thanksgiving itself. Here’s why.

Cultural traditions evolve and change.

For instance, I remember preparing for and celebrating Arbor Day when I was in elementary school, but it has all but been erased from the public consciousness since. Environmentalists don’t even talk it up much.

Other changes have been more consequential and controversial. I watch “A Charlie Brown Christmas” each year for only one reason; to see Linus unself-consciously recite Luke Chapter 2 – about the birth of Jesus, at the end of the program. By today’s standards, it is simply astonishing that such a specific reference to faith on the public airwaves was  uncontroversial 48 years ago, when the show debuted.  Each year I wait to see which network will be the first to delete the scene, or replace it with something more “inclusive.”

In contrast, Thanksgiving has been something you could count on.

There was lineage and continuity. Generationally, the trappings of the day changed little.  It was a major celebration in its own right as a national holiday.  Stores closed. People gathered with family. It was the one day of the year where gluttony was not a vice. There were important lessons to be learned of humility, of charity of personal reflection.  While the day might have had religious foundations, you don’t need to be a person of faith to participate; Thanksgiving is naturally inclusive. Better, as Thanksgiving isn’t a gift-giving holiday, it was easier to stay true to the meaning of the day.

Perhaps under-appreciated,  Thanksgiving also served a vital role in the chronology of the year. Just as Memorial Day officially marks the beginning of summer, Thanksgiving marked the official beginning of the Christmas season. Not the day itself – but the day after.  Black Friday was the official beginning of the 4-6 week sprint to December 25th.

But no more.

Retailers and the high priests of materialism have nibbling at the edges of Thanksgiving for at least 20 years. “Holiday” trees and snow men and Santas started going up earlier and earlier. Some department stores began putting up Christmas decorations before children had put a dent in Halloween candy.

But somehow, even with these decorative changes, Thanksgiving held its ground.

Until now.

Last year, retailers, simply unable to contain their bottom-line obsessions,  kicked up a major controversy by opening their stores on Thanksgiving, depriving employees of a day of rest and reflection with their families, and enticing citizens, otherwise focused on turkey wings and stuffing, to gobble down the food to get to the stores.

This year, the bottom fell out. Some companies are running Black Friday sales the week before Black Friday. As for Thanksgiving itself, any sense of restraint has vanished. Walmart is opening two hours earlier than last year, at 6pm.  Target will open an hour earlier than last year, at 8pm.

But other retails have given up any pretense of honoring the holiday. Old Navy will open at 9am on Turkey Day. For you early risers, Kmart will be open at 6am.  Even hoity toity Lord & Taylor is getting in on the action, opening its flagship Manhattan store at 9am.

Instead of a day for food and family, contemplation and celebration, retailers are transforming Thanksgiving into an unseemly starting line.  How much of a stretch is it before Jason and Subway are offering Thanksgiving Turkey subs so that “busy shoppers can have Thanksgiving on the go….”

It is horrifying.

And all to what end?

So that major retailers can have a fatter profit margin?

There have been predictions of a less than stellar Christmas shopping season, due almost entirely to five years of an exceptionally unexceptional economy that has strained average Americans to the limit. So it is something bordering on immoral when retailers trample on Thanksgiving to get consumers to the stores for what are, essentially “fake” sales.  The Wall Street Journal exposed what is little more than rampant price-fixing to fool customers into believing they have gotten a deal, when in fact, they have just contributed nicely to the corporation’s bottom line.

It is vulgar and deeply dishonest.

Enough.

We need to slow down. We need to consciously think about the people and things in our lives that are so valuable that they cannot have a price tag put on them. Joy and contentment will never be found in a life’s expedition to buy more and more. It only leads to a more disposable society where everything is valued less.

So this year, I take a conscious stand.  I will be thankful for a day set aside, simply to give thanks. I will cook traditional favorites that date back decades. I will eat, I will laugh.  I will remember those that are gone, and be grateful for those that are with me. I will count those blessings that get lost in the day-to-day of work and life. I’ll watch football.

I will do all these things, but I will go nowhere near a store. Send a message to retail America and do the same.

You will not be missing out on anything (remember, you are being baited and switched upon on an unheard of scale), the “real” sales will come later – when retailers are gasping for breath – and in any event, its only one day. Push back on the forced-fading of Thanksgiving. Individuals of noble intent can combine to create armies of authentic purpose. Don’t let corporate America destroy venerable American traditions simply to make a buck.

Give thanks for Thanksgiving tomorrow, and make a personal commitment to keep it as part of your family’s most precious traditions.

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all.