The Christmas War on Thanksgiving - and on all the rest of the Calendar.

Why is it that Christians seem to hate Thanksgiving?

Yes, I'm only half serious here. But come on! The Christmas music has already started on the local radio station, and Christmas lights have already started showing up on scattered homes in our neighborhood. The local Wal-mart and Target stores have their full Christmas displays set up, and have dedicated major floorspace to Christmas decorations while giving only a token to Thanksgiving.

The stores that do advertise Thanksgiving do so as an afterthought, tucked away in a corner as if they're ashamed. In stores I've already heard the Muzak versions of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". I did sort of enjoy the hard rock version of "O Holy Night" on the radio - but only because I imagined it as a concert by Metallica.

Every year Christmas comes a little earlier.

It is like a war movie, "The Holiday that Conquered the Calendar!" Hanukkah and the Winter Solstice are occupied territory. Christmas then unleashed a barrage and Thanksgiving fell, in flames. Light cavalry with focused air support easily took Veterans Day afterward. Our only hope now is Halloween - it's a strong holiday and is usually able to go toe-to-toe with Christmas.

But the 'War on Holidays that are Not Christmas' has even come to Halloween. Over the last few decades Christians have been holding "Harvest Parties" at their churches, forbidding the wearing of traditional costumes, and even creating Christian hellfire and brimstone morality plays disguised as haunted house wannabes.

Halloween's bunkers are holding, but they're under heavy fire!


As a disclaimer, I'll freely admit that I do enjoy Christmas - I've said that before. But Thanksgiving used to be one of my favorite holidays - and now it's flying a foreign flag.

So this year I'm going to wish people "Happy Thanksgiving" all the way through Christmas. I think Thanksgiving deserves to regain some of the time that's been stolen away from it, and maybe by advancing it deeply behind the Christmas front lines the traditional Turkey Day can regain some of its former prestige.

You should consider doing the same thing. If we don't help the other holidays regain captured calendar days then some day in the future there will only be Christmas. Rise up! Wish everyone a "Happy Thanksgiving!" this year.

And if some Christmas trooper questions your battle cry, ask them - "Why do you hate Thanksgiving?"

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really don't believe it is necessarily Christians that are doing this. It all comes down to marketing and the big bad world of commerce.

I do not practice any religion, but I do like to celebrate the holidays in general. I consider Thanksgiving one of those holidays. I would love to not see anything in the stores until after Thanksgiving. Back to the way it use to be in the 60's

Whisper said...

Personally, I don't get it c.c

I'm British and live in England, so maybe it's just me. From what I know about the holiday, isn't it a bit of a controvertial subject anyway?

I'll stick with Christmas thanks - even as an atheist, I LOVE Christmas.

scarlet cabesa said...

I much prefer thanksgiving to xmas any day...I hate that the zombie king's adherents are pushing for a longer xmas period.
Yes, I 'm sure its marketing...but in a primarily xian nation, who do you think they are marketing TO?

I'm equally sure that many xians who hear some people want Christmas confined to December will cry "persecution" The whiny-assed babies! ;o)

In my area, there was xmas gear up a week prior to Halloween...and I let that store know that I would be boycotting them, and buying Thanksgiving things at another store. Won't make a damned bit of difference, but I enjoyed it.

Not Important said...

I heard a report on the radio a few days back where a retailer claimed that *this* year's early Christmas preparation was due to consumer demand. Huh?

The rationale was that since the economy is bad, people need more time to shop for gifts, so by putting up the Christmasey stuff early, the stores are simply providing some kind of financial assistance to cash-strapped shoppers. See, the retailers are actually on *your* side.

I think the person making this claim was related to Lindsay Nagel from The Simpsons.

NerdMom said...

If it makes you feel any better, I know many other Christians that are angry about the early Christmas stuff. Many feel it dilutes the meaning that we are celebrating.

FYI, Thanksgiving was moved by FDR (I believe) in order to make the Christmas shopping season longer. FDR, not know as a big Christian;). It is all about the almighty dollar.

Buffy said...

I worked in retail for some years. As soon as the "back to school" junk was out of the way in mid-September the Christmas crap took its place. The thing was, the Christians used to lament the commercialization of their precious holiday. Now they run around screaming if the stores don't have the "proper" amount of Jesus Junk and berating any clerk that doesn't give the appropriate gang signs. Apparently Christmas isn't about celebrating the birth of Christ, but about making sure retailers kowtow properly to Christians.