The turkey was served, and the mashed potatoes with gravy were passed. As we all slowly slip out of our tryptophan stupor, we begin to prepare for the upcoming Christmas season. Now I’m sure you have noticed that Christmas in the retail world seems to appear earlier and earlier every year. I’m pretty sure there was one store that I visited who was simultaneously displaying Halloween and Christmas decorations. Don’t you think that’s a little too early? What happened to Thanksgiving?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for celebrating the holidays year round because of all of the things that it represents – happiness, family, tradition, togetherness. Those are the things the holidays should be about, not trying to be the first retail store to get a jump start on their holiday revenue.

The holidays increasingly seem to be about perfection – the perfect tree, the perfect present for your loved ones, the perfect dinner table. We are all getting wrapped up in creating the perfect holiday season that we forget that what makes the season so special is the magic, the togetherness, and the laughter.

Let me ask you a question: how many of you remember the most perfect Christmas you ever had? Sure, it could be that one year where you got the one gift you really wanted or when Grandma made your favorite pie for dessert. If you think hard enough though, I would bet the fondest memories are when Christmas didn’t go quite right, like when someone drops the turkey or when your cousin laughs too hard and their drink comes out their nose.

No retailer could ever recreate those memories, no matter how hard they push the latest and greatest gadgets and gifts. In my opinion, in their attempts to promote the perfect gifts for each member of your family, they are simultaneously taking away what truly matters this holiday season – family.

With a majority of the popular retailers beginning their “Black Friday” sales on “Brown Thursday,” they’re pulling their employees away from their families. If you have never worked in retail over the holiday season, consider yourself lucky. You were able to enjoy a nice, hot meal with your family and then head out to enjoy the sales at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, and no thought other than the biggest sales and deals were floating through your head. But did you ever think about the people ringing up your gifts in the checkout line or helping you load your flat screen LCD TV into the car?

I was one of those people last year, and let me tell you, it was one of the most difficult things I had to do. On Thanksgiving Day, customers would come through my checkout line and say something to the effect of “Oh I’m so sorry that you have to work on Thanksgiving,” and I had to squelch every ounce of my being from not retorting “Well, you’re the reason why I’m working.” Thankfully, the company I worked for was closed for Christmas Day, the only day of the year where the entire store was closed. Even then, that still doesn’t seem good enough for the general public. On Christmas Eve, one of my customers had the audacity to ask me if the store would be open the next day in case he would have to do last minute shopping.

Now I don’t want this article to be a pity party for all of the retail workers nationwide, but more of a call for reflection for all Americans, whether you work in retail or not. My retail experience has definitely changed my perspective on how I view the employees of the stores I visit on Black Friday, and NOT Brown Thursday. Sure, the store may not have the hot item of the season or the checkout line might be a mile long, but sometimes those employees have absolutely no control over what happens. Maybe someone called off, or a particular shipment may not have reached the store on time. You honestly never know, and it breaks my heart to see shoppers treating the employees like the employee had a personal hand in “ruining” their shopping experience. The holiday season should be about joy and happiness, not fighting each other over the last big screen TV.

I do love an incredible sale as much as the next person, but I’m slowly starting to realize that as I get older it’s not about how much money you spend or save, it’s about being together during the holiday season. And if America continues to shop on Thanksgiving Day, the retailers will remain open.

I challenge everyone this holiday season to take a step back and take a good, hard look at how you spend your time. Are you so focused on finding the perfect gift for your children when in all reality, they will probably play with it for five seconds and then realize the toy’s packaging is far more interesting, Wouldn’t you rather be making those treasured memories like decorating the tree or creating a mess while you bake Christmas cookies?

Rick Warren said it best: “Time is your most precious gift because you only have a set amount of it. You can make more money, but you can't make more time. When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you'll never get back. Your time is your life. That is why the greatest gift you can give someone is your time.”