Ryan Jaeckel
CONTRIBUTOR
For the entire month of October everyone was excited for Halloween. From decorating your home to having the most stylish costume for your Greek life’s party—you could see the energy and drive to celebrate this famous holiday. But as soon as the clock strikes midnight, decorations are replaced and costumes shredded all for what some believe is the next holiday in line: Christmas. Those who think this are just simply wrong.
Don’t get me wrong, I, like many others, love jamming out to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” or Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas.” I just listen to these hits at the right time—after we carve up the turkey, reflect on what we are thankful for and then rip each other to shreds a few hours later. I am of course talking about the historic holiday of Thanksgiving.
I am not saying that we shouldn’t celebrate Christmas or that it’s a terrible holiday. I’m simply saying to all who are eager for this holiday, to slow down and count your blessings.
When I was younger, Thanksgiving was a time where I knew my family would travel far to meet with family that we rarely see. We would reminisce prior about grandma’s delicious pumpkin pie, how golden brown your uncle got the turkey or the annual loss of the Detroit Lions.
There are some who say the overhype for Christmas is good for the economy and gets people prepared for holiday shopping. I tend to disagree with that.
One example I have against this is the early release of Black Friday advertisements. Usually by the end of October or early November, large retail stores start to release their Black Friday advertisements to prepare veteran holiday shoppers.
Another example is those same retail stores have started opening their stores earlier and earlier every year. This year, Target will open earlier and close late—with hours on Thanksgiving from 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. the next day. Business Insider has called this Target’s earliest opening ever.
We don’t need to overhype the Christmas season by starting it early literally minutes after Halloween ends. Radio stations can wait until after Black Friday to play those holiday tunes, stores can wait to stock the shelves with fake trees and we can collectively wait to hang the mistletoe.
It is known that as a nation, we will always be excited for Christmas. It’s instilled in us at a young age when we would go to the mall and tell Santa what we want for Christmas. Retail stores know we will impulse buy that shiny new item or what is projected to be the hottest toy of the season. We will always see our family or start new ones every holiday.
But we need to take it step one at a time. That starts with giving thanks for a few hours surrounded by the ones we love.
