Thanksgiving deserves attention

November 20, 2006 —

Well, Halloween is finally over. We're eating up the last of our candy and putting our costumes away. We Americans are getting ready for the next big holiday of the year: Christmas.

Christmas? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a little something called Thanksgiving in between the two? I feel as if corporations are pushing it out more and more every year, and soon we'll all care about it just about as much as we care about Columbus Day.

Does our old Native American pal Squanto mean nothing to us anymore? Squanto helped the Pilgrims with their rather embarrassing survival skills and is basically the reason for the season. I'm pretty sure if Squanto was alive today, he'd be disappointed in us for skipping straight to all the good Christmas stuff.

Last week I was in Kohl's, and instead of seeing cute little turkeys, I saw a Christmas tree in nearly every aisle. I'm surprised there wasn't a machine making snow in there to create a better effect, too.

The Fashion Square Mall has Christmas and gift reminders around every corner. Wal-Mart is already starting to devote more aisles for Christmas than it does for the entire toy section. Best Buy just sent me a Christmas catalog in the mail.

The only places that really seem to be into Thanksgiving are grocery stores because they have a plethora of turkeys to sell. I'm sure Christmas hams will be in before Thanksgiving is over, though.

I realize that Thanksgiving doesn't sell as well for businesses like Halloween and Christmas do. Store owners have to make a living too, but could I at least finish my Halloween candy first before I get Christmas tree ornaments shoved in my face?

Thanksgiving is important, especially to us poor college students who don't normally eat adequate meals. I'd love to see Thanksgiving a little more commercialized with some corny turkey advertisements and possibly more Pilgrim and Native American decorations. Maybe we should paint the spirit rock to make it look like a turkey.

I don't think grocery stores should be the ones to hold all the Thanksgiving glory. They get to sell the entire meal. Wal-Mart needs to create lots of huge blowup turkeys and I want to walk into Kohl's and be able to buy a sweater with Pilgrims on it. I'll hold off on buying the sweater with Santa's face on the front until December.

Let's face it. Without Thanksgiving, November would be terribly boring. We need to milk Thanksgiving for all that it is worth. Christmas just needs to take a step back and recognize it shouldn't be showing up at least until all the turkey and pumpkin pie is.

I'm going to buy every single Thanksgiving decoration I can find (which will probably only cost me around $5) and I'm giving the cold shoulder to the Christmas aisles for the time being. If you enjoy turkey and eating with your family I suggest you do the same. We all have plenty of time afterward to think about Christmas.

Let's make Squanto proud this year.