The fourth Thursday of every November is traditionally known as Thanksgiving. With this holiday usually comes cheer, thankfulness and lots of time with friends and family. Thanksgiving dinner is usually an event that brings people together as they gather around a table of steaming mashed potatoes, freshly baked pumpkin pie and a juicy turkey.
Historically, Thanksgiving was always the last Thursday in November until some business leaders wrote to F.D.R. and asked if the date could be a week earlier to give people more time to shop for Christmas. Unfortunately, a new tradition has intruded upon this sentimental time with family: it's called Black Friday. Black Friday is a holiday of its own, marking the official end of the last holiday before Christmas, and opening the Christmas shopping season.
A few years ago, consumers saw the change of Black Friday slowly creeping into Thanksgiving Day. It began to become the norm to finish your Thanksgiving meal early and suit up for Thursday deals and doorbusters. Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, GameStop, JC Penney, Kmart, Target, Toys “R’ Us and Walmart are a few stores that will be opening on Thanksgiving around the United States. This means the day dedicated to giving thanks to what people have already is essentially thrown out the door and traded for new shiny stuff that is, half of the time, not needed.
As a person who loves great deals on Christmas presents, new clothes, and appliances, I truly embrace Black Friday. It is when Black Friday creeps into Thanksgiving day that makes me upset. The sad reality is that, as consumers, we can decide whether or not we shop, but many workers in retail and other stores cannot decide whether or not they go to work.
I sat down with a student of UW- Madison, Tayler Palkowski, who works at Boston Store in Greendale, Wisconsin. She stated, “I had to be at work at 4:30 p.m. last year because we opened at 5:30 p.m., so I had to miss Thanksgiving dinner with my family and so did most of my coworkers.”
This year Boston Store is opening up at a shocking 11 a.m. Tayler goes on, saying, “Personally, I don’t like this because it is not fair to the people who work there and others who have to leave their families to go Christmas shopping. Without the big sale...many families wouldn’t be able to afford nice presents, its as if they are taking away both Thanksgiving and Christmas.”
Interestingly, Tayler makes a good point: holidays are becoming increasingly more commercialized. Every holiday costs money. For example, buying a costume and candy for Halloween, numerous presents at Christmastime, a basket of gifts at Easter time, money under your pillow for teeth and so on. Holidays are becoming more about the presents than spending quality time with people you love or actually celebrating the day.
Additionally, the demands of loved ones to receive certain gifts puts lots of pressure on significant others, parents, and others. Not getting a certain gift can ruin an entire holiday for not just one person, but an entire family. Do we really want our children growing up in a time that encourages the overindulgence of toys to have a fulfilling Christmas? Children should crave a warm cheery holiday with their family instead of the newest released toy.
The only way to fix this problem is to start by changing yourself. On a day where you sit around the table and share what you are thankful for, I encourage you to skip the deal on Nike shoes and stay in. When it comes to true happiness over material happiness, I think your shopping can wait until Friday.