Marketing Thanksgiving

Hi neighbors. Did you notice the Christmas decorations going up October 31? What is this madness?

Every year I lament the abuse of Thanksgiving as a holiday. This year is no different. Sorry if you get tired of hearing about how no one respects America's most family orientated holiday, but this annual slight is my pet peeve.

What is this ongoing conspiracy to do away with this great holiday? Is it the title of the holiday? Does the word "Thanksgiving" offend someone? Is being grateful for having food to eat and a roof over your head considered politically incorrect these days?

Is taking a few hours out of the year to celebrate family connections and revisit family values in some way "out of fashion" now?

Maybe it's the fact that people don't buy a lot of "things" at Thanksgiving. There is the food and things to cook the food in, and dishes to serve the food from. Still, other than food, most households have cooking pots and serving bowls already. Most money for the Thanksgiving holiday is spent on food.

Are our holidays going to be ranked according to how much merchandising they generate?

The powers that be have tried to tie Thanksgiving into the same buying craze they've attached to Christmas. The annual "day after Thanksgiving shopping spree" has become a tradition in many families.

It's almost like merchants are saying, "Finally! This boring American Thanksgiving holiday is over and we can get back to thinking greed instead of thankfulness!" I think we ought to start exchanging presents on Thanksgiving. Oh, we can still exchange them on Christmas Day, but let's go ahead and move some of the spending up. We could demote Halloween to the level to which Thanksgiving has fallen.

But then, Halloween does involve buying things. I think marketers have outsmarted themselves in skipping Thanksgiving though.

Back in the day (when the world and I were young) people decorated for Thanksgiving! There were paper turkeys with circular expanding bellies and huge colorful tails used as centerpieces for the dining room table -- you remember actually eating around a dining room table don't you? -- and decorations to hang in the windows and on the walls.

There were banners to hang across the doors and candles that smelled like apple pudding or pumpkin pie. True, none of these decorations costs hundreds of dollars and most people didn't put them on a charge card.

I suppose there is no way to save Thanksgiving from its gradual extinction as a holiday. It is true that airplane ticket sales usually go up for Thanksgiving as people want to go home for the holiday. Still, the price of gas has nixed that spending spree for many.

Having Thanksgiving fall on a Thursday is certain to speed its demise. What other holiday doesn't offer a three day weekend?

Now that I think about it, that's probably why large groups of people don't vote -- they don't realize it's actually a holiday because it's on a Tuesday.

We should move Thanksgiving to Friday, spend hundreds of dollars for decorations and start exchanging "thankfulness" gifts with family and friends.

The holiday needs to be souped up with more aggressive marketing. One ad might read, "Show your parents you are thankful for their years of hard work and sacrifice to get you through college. Buy them a large screen television on your 29 per cent interest credit card. You'll look thankful, they will be thankful and we, the credit card companies, will be very thankful for several years to come!" Or how about a patriotic spin? "Buy something BIG this year for Thanksgiving! Show your country your degree of thankfulness by spending your hard-earned paychecks on things you don't really need, can't afford, but kind of want. You have to support your country's economy! Prove that you are thankful to be an American. Spend! Spend! Spend!" Well, maybe Thanksgiving will survive as a low-overhead holiday for another year or two. I'll be celebrating with family and friends and be very thankful I have them in my life.

Until the next time friends remember that although we can be greateful for all the "things" we have in our lives; we should take time to show our thankfulness for the people in our lives.