Thanksgiving is a time of year full of family and traditions.

Unfortunately, Thanksgiving tends to fall under what I have dubbed as the "November curse"–acting as a mere stepping stone to get from Halloween to Christmas. However, when Thanksgiving is given the spotlight all on its own, there are a lot of conflicting themes, namely sharing time and giving thanks juxtaposed with the themes of genocide that Americans continually sweep under the rug. Whether one is pro or anti Thanksgiving, there are many nostalgic airs that accompany the worst parts.

The Best:

1. Spending Time with Family

I genuinely appreciate moments that bring my entire family together. Everyone lives far away from each other, but during the holidays we can come together and just enjoy getting to share special moments together, because we never know how many of those moments we will get to have. Yes, family members can stress you out and say problematic things (I will be avoiding political talk more than usual this year), but ultimately, I love my family, they support me, and I enjoy laughing and hanging out with loved ones that I don't get to see on a regular basis. Thanksgiving offers all of this without any stress associated with gift giving and the chaos of children on sugar highs from candy, which makes it the ultimate family holiday. Coming together as a family (whether biological, or family of choice) to socialize and express thanks is the entire purpose of Thanksgiving, and therefore makes it feel like the holiday with the purest of intentions. Of course this is all done over food, which is one of the most evident forms of cultural exchange, and brings people together in a way that they can all relate.

2. The food

Honestly what else can I say about the food? Everyone cooks a lot of good things and I like eating it. I also just really needed to include the turkey pants gif.

3. The parade

Everyone but my aunt makes fun of me for being excited to watch the parade and the dog show every Thanksgiving, but I think that they are both incredibly underrated. The parade is full of amazing musical numbers, marching bands that have played their hearts out, celebrities singing eclectic mixes of songs while standing on floats that have no relation to them, and the balloons that take me right back to my childhood. Not to mention the end of the parade, where the appearance of Santa Claus finally ushers in the official kickoff of the Christmas season. The parade is so pure, and it just makes me happy.

The Worst (ranked from least to most heinous):

1. "The Countdown to the 25 Days of Christmas"

Christmas movies are one of my favorite aspects of gearing up for the biggest holiday of the year. They encompass the childlike nostalgia the anyone who celebrates Christmas has experienced while encompassing a vast array of genres–"It's a Wonderful Life", "Love Actually", and "Elf" can all hold exceptionally similar favoritism for me, while also having very little stylistic components in common with each other. I am a huge fan of abc's usual 25 Days of Christmas.

However, a countdown TO a countdown makes no sense whatsoever, and I believe in a distinct separation of the holidays that fall in the October-December time span. Thanksgiving, and November as a whole, tends to get bypassed to make way for Christmas (seemingly) sooner and sooner every year. The countdown to THE countdown feels like a fruitless attempt to fill the void between "The 13 Nights of Halloween" and "The 25 Days of Christmas", because no one ever makes movies about Thanksgiving. It contributes to the devaluing of November, and I hate it.

2. Black Friday

My inner cynic believes that there is nothing more American than leaving your loved ones as fast as you can after Thanksgiving dinner in order to participate in the most infamous cult rite of capitalist hell. Arguably, I can still objectively see the benefit of Black Friday, especially for those who might not have the means to be able to participate in gift exchanges if it weren't for the outrageous sales that Black Friday is known for. Going out to buy one high price item the day after Thanksgiving is not a crime, nor is spending all of the day shopping around for good deals. I still have my own personal qualms around it, but I can objectively let it slide without getting too wound up.

However, the idea of leaving one's family on Thanksgiving day in order to participate in early black Friday deals leaves me enraged. Thanksgiving and Christmas both have opportunities to be holidays about family, being thankful, and sharing memorable experiences with the people that we hold close to us, yet they always seem to get sucked into a consumerist conspiracy to get society to increasingly place higher value on objects than the things that truly matter in life. This quickly turns into the existential questioning of material items and the place that they hold in our lives, and I truly believe that family is and should be of greater value than any worldly possession. We only have a limited amount of time with our loved ones, so we should make the most of it–especially on holidays that bring the entire family together.

3. The first Thanksgiving story and dressing up as Native Americans

I have several memories of dressing up in "Indian" and Pilgrim attire throughout my early school years as a part of participating in a gift exchange or feast meant to symbolize the first Thanksgiving. When I think about it now, I am horrified at how many adults perpetuated the idea that it is ok to bastardize the culture of Native Americans for fun. I am also incredibly resentful that no adults explained the reality of the relationship between white settlers and the indigenous people that they displace. I understand that it is not necesarily appropriate to explain the genocide of the Native Americans to young children when they ask about the origin of Thanksgiving, but there is no need to say that the pilgrims and Native Americans got along so well and were best friends. Children can understand the concept that people can be mean to others, and it would not be difficult to explain that we celebrate Thanksgiving because Native Americans kept the stupid white people from dying, but that the white people actually ended up being really mean to the people who were essentially keeping them alive. There is a way to talk about it without making it an entirely fun and happy story without having to explain small pox blankets and genocide.