The Angry Rebel: Thanksgiving’s Demotion

By Zachary Swartz

Over the past few years there has been a strange trend that has see Thanksgiving become little more than a dinner. When I was younger I was told the holiday was about saying thank you for what you received and what advantages you have, then to celebrate these acknowledgements we must eat odd food that is consumed no other time of the year. 

The notion of being thankful is great, but when I sit around a table with my immediate family and a series of relatives I honestly have little to do with the concept all of a sudden falls a bit flat. I mean even this little tradition of saying what we are thankful for has disappeared over the year. Simply put Thanksgiving no longer deserves its status as a holiday and judging by the advertisements and decorations I am not alone in this conclusion 

There seems to be little to no mention of the holiday within my media consumption at all. In fact the only mention of Thanksgiving I have heard at all is the NFL games that are taking place Thanksgiving night. Honestly this shouldn’t be much of a surprise. The amount of merchandise you can sell for Thanksgiving is quite limited. Yes there is the turkey, the stuffing and some awkward orange and brown decorations, but after that there is nothing left. 

Christmas on the other hand is easily the most marketable of all holidays; it basically takes over all of media and leaves no room for competitors, sorry Kwanzaa. So why not let the Christmas season start November first. I say go for it Christmas, but we then need to figure out what to do with Thanksgiving. We can’t simply get rid of it, right? 

Well no. 

So we demote it to basically being the 4^th of July of Fall. In fact this change seems quite natural. Both of these are American holidays that commemorate important events that occurred, one more positive than the other, but the basic principle is the same. “We are Americans, we want to eat a hell of a lot of food with no judgment!” 

Just to make sure we don’t get to repetitive though Thanksgiving will remain much more of a formal face stuffing. We will still need to dress up and have the grandparents over, but the preparation and stress need to be taken down just a bit. There are certain holidays you need to worry about and with this demotion Thanksgiving quickly becomes one you don’t. 

So I hope you join me this year in indulging in the Christmas extravaganza early and teaching who ever is in charge of the Thanksgiving PR department a lesson.