Why Thanksgiving is the Best Holiday Even Though I Like Christmas More

I went to the grocery store yesterday with a list of items I needed for Thanksgiving dinner.  This is the first year we’re having the whole family to our house, so I wanted to make sure I got everything I needed.  I went during the middle of the day so it wouldn’t be crowded with people holding similar lists filled with similar items and thankfully I had no problem finding everything I needed.  The odd thing is that I could barely tell from wandering the aisles that we were days away from the second biggest holiday of the year.  The only indication at all was that the end caps were stocked with items like pecans, canned pumpkin and Karo syrup.  The fall decorations had been moved to the clearance aisle and almost everything in sight suggested that Christmas was in full swing.

Every year it feels like Christmas encroaches a little further onto the territory of Thanksgiving, the strong, silent winter holiday.  I was hoping it wouldn’t be so bad this year since Thanksgiving falls so early.  This means the Christmas shopping season even longer than usual and there is plenty of time to shop and hang stockings.  No need to get ahead of ourselves.  Instead, I think this year has been even worse.  Usually when the Christmas decorations start appearing on shelves in mid November, the predominant sentiment I hear is people bemoaning Christmas’s early arrival as though it were a great aunt showing up an hour before a family gathering.  This year, however, all I’ve heard are people talking about putting their trees up early or trying to get a jump on their shopping.  I’ve had several people say to me “Christmas is almost here” when it’s actually 5 weeks away.

I understand why stores don’t wait until after Thanksgiving to start in with Christmas.  I can’t really blame them.  They’re there to make money and they only make money if we’re buying things. This is why Thanksgiving gets the fuzzy end of the lollipop.  At Thanksgiving, no one’s getting a card and we’re not buying gifts for each other.  There are no balloons or huge bags of fun sized candies to be snatched up by eager consumers.  Thanksgiving has managed to remain one of the purest of holidays chiefly because no one has succeeded in commercializing it.  This is one of the best things about Thanksgiving. 

The other thing that makes Thanksgiving the best holiday is that it’s the great equalizer.  No one is disqualified from celebrating because they can’t afford it.  You could be alone and homeless without a penny to your name and still find a church or shelter serving a simple Thanksgiving dinner where you’d sit together with people of similar means and feel a part of something for that hour.  For most people though, the circumstances aren’t so dire.  And while Christmas separates the haves from the have nots when it comes to gift giving and elaborate light displays and decorations, Thanksgiving has simple requirements.  It’s one meal spent with people we love.  Most importantly, it’s not an expensive meal of steak and lobster tail and white truffles.  Thanksgiving is turkey, a meat that can be easily had for under a dollar a pound.  Thanksgiving is green beans, whether elegantly prepared or dumped out of a can.  Thanksgiving is cranberry sauce with the lines of the can still visible and a bowl full of mashed potatoes.  You’d be hard pressed to find a meal that can be had for less money unless you resorted to beans and rice. 

My point in all this is not to put a damper on the joy that comes with the winter juggernaut of a holiday that is Christmas.  I absolutely love Christmas and it brings its own set of heart-warming feelings of togetherness and love and charity.  The problem is that Christmas is also Black Friday and crowded malls and outdoing the neighbor’s light display.  So while I’m excited about Christmas, I’d like to just enjoy the uncorrupted purity that is Thanksgiving first.  I want to sit at a table filled with people I love and enjoy some cheap poultry and potatoes.  We’ll half watch a football game and talk about things that make us happy. And that makes me happy.