The cool winds and changing leaves of October greet me with a slew of advertisements for pumpkin spice coffee, gingerbread flavored everything, and even Christmas decorations.
That’s right, the old school tale of Christmas in August grows more realistic as the commercialization of a once special holiday rips the meaning from its core.
Thanksgiving was once a holiday filled with gratefulness and time spent being happy for what you have. Now filled with the lingering scent of gluttony in the air, I beg for an answer to the question, “What will our children think Thanksgiving is actually all about?”
Commercials displaying big families digging into huge piles of food flicker across the tv between plays of Thanksgiving football games.
Women wait patiently to leave late at night and wait in long lines to battle it out over Black Friday sales.
Between stuffing our faces, screaming at referees’ bad calls through the television screen, and fighting tooth and nail in the dead of night over half price boots, when do we schedule in time to be thankful for what we have?
By the time Christmas comes around, we’ve already seen Christmas decorations in various Wal-Marts and K-Marts for over two months.
Holly, garland, gold accents, giant Christmas trees, eggnog dusted with nutmeg, and presents piled to the ceilings are some of the things that come to mind when we think about Christmas. Is that really what this day is all about? The day that is oh-so-important, or it so seems by the massive build up?
For most families, the day begins with children anxious to tear into presents, followed by huge meals, and traveling to visit all of the family only to receive more gifts and shove our faces everywhere we go. But I know that this holiday’s meaning is subjective.
To many, it’s about the celebration of the birth of Jesus, but to many other families it is all about spending time with those that you love and showing them your love through gifts.
But these gifts aren’t to be self-chosen. Many people go into the holiday with expectations and standards for gifts yet to be received and are only disappointed when they look into that unwrapped box to see a sweater and socks instead of the brand new iPad.
Gifts from loved ones are not meant to be chosen by you. They are supposed to be sentimental. To know that when they saw that one thing, they thought about you and spent their money on you.
I hate to be cliché, but it’s time to get back to the basics. For a lot of seniors who are soon to be headed off to college and leaving the nest, these are our last holidays to spend with our families while still living at home. Holidays after this will be different.
Let’s spend this last one the way we should have spent them all: without expectations, giving thanks, and just taking time to soak in these precious moments with our families.