the Informer

Where did the Thanksgiving turkey, pilgrim and Native American decorations go? Why don't the colors in the mall match the colors of the leaves outside? Oh yeah, because retail forgot about Thanksgiving and went straight to Christmas, that's why.,Every year, just around this time, students are gearing up for Thanksgiving break. This is a break where we all get to see our families after a long semester of hard work, and we can finally relax for a few days. We eat great food, see great people, and watch cheesy Thanksgiving-themed television shows with our friends and family – wait a second, where did the themed television go?

Where did the Thanksgiving turkey, pilgrim and Native American decorations go? Why don't the colors in the mall match the colors of the leaves outside? Oh yeah, because retail forgot about Thanksgiving and went straight to Christmas, that's why.

By daybreak on Nov. 1, malls across the country were decked in red and green, playing cheery music over their speakers to remind customers, "Christmas is only 55 days away, buy gifts now!" and Santa was even making an appearance to hear little kids' wish lists.

What happened to Thanksgiving? I suppose that retail outlets and stores decided they could no longer make a profit off of turkey and togetherness, but moved swiftly from Halloween to Christmas instead. All capital and profits aside, has the general public forgotten about it, too? I remember always getting excited for Thanksgiving when I was a kid.

My family would cook big elaborate meals and dress up, just to sit and eat at the same table we had dinner at every night, but somehow Thanksgiving was different from every other night.

More recently, we have been going out for dinner because cooking for all six of us is just too much work, considering all of our busy schedules and stomachs that stand-in for black holes. This year we haven't come across many advertisements for Thanksgiving dinner and after calling and attempting to make reservations on behalf of the occasion, we found that many restaurants aren't catering to Thanksgiving.

What? Not catering to Thanksgiving? Are you kidding me? Thanksgiving is the quintessential American Holiday. Hell, it was created around an event that changed the way our country progressed as a nation.

Of course, we're not kidding ourselves with the picture-perfect idea of how Pilgrims treated Native Americans, but the themes of this holiday are family, togetherness and being thankful (duh). So why not put down the plastic and take a break from holiday shopping to remind each other what Thanksgiving is really about. What are you thankful for? I'm thankful for my wildly supportive friends and hard-working family, for the opportunities that my education may offer, and that I have had a wholesome and fulfilling life so far.

Although it shouldn't take a holiday for us to remind ourselves of the things we are thankful for, it's ludicrous that retail has completely ignored it. So ludicrous, in fact, that on Sunday night I even saw a commercial with a countdown to the countdown to Christmas. Yeah, you read that right; it's not a redundant typo. As my friends and I sat there with our jaws on the floor, we were ushered right into another commercial about Christmas shopping. It looks like Black Friday has taken precedence over Thanksgiving, and I honestly find that disgusting.

What I'm getting at here is that the holiday season has become much too commercialized and we have seemed to forgotten what the holidays are really about.

So if we can't have Thanksgiving on Thursday, at least wish the poor retail workers "Happy Holidays" when you're scrambling to snag the last merlot-colored-polyblend-lite-iced-chai-fitted-striped-trendy sweater out of the discount bin at 4 a.m. on Black Friday, because these days that's as close to Thanksgiving as we're going to get.