Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Christmas seem to arrive quicker and quicker each year. Not only does the holiday itself arrive faster but so does the holiday advertising.
Remember when Thanksgiving was a holiday to spend with family? When everyone gathered around the table to pass turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and smiles filled with love. When the home was decorated with fall colors; pumpkins at the door and a cornucopia as the center piece on the dining room table. When the only worry, as the day grew old, was time with family dwindling down.
Well those were the old days. Today Thanksgiving is spent planning your dinner around Black Friday. Articulately planning a shopping schedule that starts at 4 a.m. and ends when there is nothing left. Should we even call shopping on Thursday Black Friday? Or should we call it Black Friday Eve?
It almost seems that when November 1st rolls around it not only marks the first day of November, but it also marks the first day we can officially recognize that Christmas is here. Christmas flips on like a light switch. Commercials on television, decorations in stores, social media accounts all switched over from spooky specials to Christmas cheer overnight it seems.
Our nation is based on a consumer’s demand, and when consumer’s demand Christmas well they get it in November. Companies want you in their stores buying their product. Companies can’t wait to start their advertising or they might not make Santa’s overflowing sleigh. However, if they are the first, with jingle bells in hand and discounts ringing their products will be under your tree.
Do I like watching Christmas ads in early November? No, I do not. Just how I don’t like Thanksgiving and the true meaning being 20% off and marked down when it should be full priced and cherished.
-Kayla Thompson
IMC Hawks Blog 
After Halloween ends and November 1st arrives, I always joke to my friends, telling them “Merry Christmas!” But I agree with you, I do not like how our society seems to be rushing the holidays more and more every year. Even though I may joke with my friends about Christmas arriving, I am truly not in the spirit until the first or second week of December. Even so, my friends and I do not stress about buying each other gifts, we’re just glad we get to spend time with each other over the holidays. It has become sad that consumer’s demand to have the newest appliances at the best prices is what the holidays have turned into. I think it is time we step back from our materialistic views and focus on spending time with our loved ones, which to me, is what the holiday season is all about.
I definitely agree with you. It is very sad that this culture has lost the true meaning of holidays with family. Now it is all about material things. Although I am a black friday junkie, I also adore the holidays simply for being able to sit around in my pajamas eating all day in my warm, decorated house with my entire family around me. I think that as long as we purposefully keep a balance between material and emotional fulfillment, the true meaning and appreciation for the holidays will still hold on to its magic.
I personally do not like how our society starts Christmas so early! The reason I feel this way is because our society has made Christmas such a selfish, consumeristic holiday, which is not why it was created in the first place! I do however adore the “Christmas spirit” part of the holiday season!
I totally agree with you! We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in the Netherlands, but we do have “Sinterklaas”, sort of Santa’s cousin, on the 5th of December. And decorations for Sinterklaas are already in stores in October, which I believe is insane. In addition, as soon as Sinterklaas is gone all the Christmas stuff gets in the stores over night and it is like Sinterklaas did not even happen. I feel like companies should give us a little break between the Holidays. They are using these special events to get as much money as they want and they forget the true meaning of them. Moreover I think that it weird that companies live from Holiday to Holiday as if they don’t have other stuff to sell. It is a sad idea, that holidays are becoming something driven by the consumer society instead of what they are meant for. I think that by having a break during the two Holidays people will appreciate them more, and remember both of them. As much as I love holidays, I don’t want to walk into a store in November and it already looks like Christmas, it is just weird.
I related this this article so much!! Every year when Halloween ends is seems that Christmas commercials and decorations seem to come out! Sometimes I even forget about thanksgiving because I’m surrounded by Christmas stuff
I completely agree with this. I think it is sad that especially that Black Friday keeps getting pushed back further and further forcing people to work on holidays instead of spending time with their families. I’m fortunate enough to work at a place that is not open on Thanksgiving as it should be. I mean I listen to Christmas music now but as far as decorating or the whole Black Friday on Thursday thing I do not agree with.