Poor, poor Thanksgiving. It’s becoming the forgotten holiday, stampeded by Christmas. That was painfully obvious to me yesterday when I went shopping to pick up a few little things. I missed the memo that I should have already made my list and be checking it twice. I’m not ready for Santa yet. I’d rather celebrate Thanksgiving first, please.<\/p>\n

The retailers clearly have no interest in Turkey Day this year. The Container Store had wrapping paper everywhere and was loudly announcing the bow making demonstration, as if all we had left to do was wrap those purchased gifts. Uh, nope. It’s Nov. 2nd, and I’m just here for an earring holder. (I know, it’s a little weird, but not as weird as the lady making the bows, trust me.) Target emailed their holiday toy mailer so that it arrived on Halloween. Amazon was tossing ads at me this weekend.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Halloween now morphs straight into the Christmas-Hanukkah-New Years season. I would say “the holidays” but that sounds like it includes Thanksgiving and really, I saw nothing related to Thanksgiving yesterday at Pottery Barn and maybe one turkey baster at Crate and Barrel.<\/p>\n

Thanksgiving has become an afterthought and I’m not okay with that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We want children who are grateful, but we’re perfectly fine relegating the holiday that emphasizes gratitude to the back burner.\u00a0Thanksgiving deserves its due, as does gratitude and appreciation for what we have and for those who have gone before us.<\/p>\n

If we want grateful kids, we need to model that feeling of appreciation and show them what it looks like. Thanksgiving is a great chance to do just that.<\/p>\n

You know who gets Thanksgiving right? Our neighbors to the north in Canada.<\/p>\n

Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October, usually when we in the States observe Columbus Day, or Indigenous Peoples’ Day, in some cities.<\/p>\n

The Canadians moved Thanksgiving from November to October to space it out from their Veterans Day, or Remembrance day.\u00a0 See, holidays, like fine wine, need time to breathe. So do people, and moving Thanksgiving to October allows that.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Moving Thanksgiving makes sense for so many reasons.<\/p>\n

* We can celebrate the indigenous people who literally saved the Pilgrims’ bacon.<\/strong> The folks from the Mayflower would not have survived if not for the assistance they received from those who were already here.<\/p>\n

* Celebrating Thanksgiving in October is more historically accurate.<\/strong> The Old Farmer’s Almanac<\/a> says that the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving took place in “mid-October, not November.”<\/p>\n

* Why not celebrate the harvest when it actually takes place?<\/strong> I feel like Thanksgiving is to express gratitude for our harvest, both literal and figurative. But by the time we celebrate, that harvest is long done. Our local farmers market ended in October. I bought a few things to save up for Thanksgiving dinner. (Hello, cute cranberries in the freezer. I’m talking about you.) But how wonderful to be able to enjoy a fresh bounty.<\/p>\n

* Spaces out the holiday travel is a good thing<\/strong>. Thanksgiving this year is November 27, less than a full calendar month before Christmas. Things get frantic and hectic.\u00a0 (See breathing comment above.) Give people a chance to spread out the expense and either the time away, or the time hosting. And come on, going a few more weeks between seeing Aunt Edna and Cousin Ralph isn’t going to hurt anyone.<\/p>\n

* This will save Thanksgiving and retailers’ bottom lines.<\/strong> I concede defeat to the retailers. I’m not trying to sink the economy here, and I must accept that mall Santa just isn’t going to step down, as a wise friend on the internet said after sharing a photo of the fully lit tree at her mall today. Thanksgiving can be a movable feast.\u00a0 Spacing out Thanksgiving and Christmas may also avert the issue of stores open on Thanksgiving and the bitter battles that sometimes erupt over that.<\/p>\n

Thanksgiving should be a national day of gratitude, not of shopping.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

* We have changed a lot of laws in this country since 1941<\/strong>, which is when Congress decreed that Thanksgiving would be on the fourth Thursday. And if you want to stick with Thursday, that’s fine by me. The second Thursday in October will work just fine for me.<\/p>\n

* It’s still football season.<\/strong> There will be no missing of the Lions or the Cowboys. It also won’t harm other traditions. I’ve been in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and I froze my patootie off. That experience would be a lot more pleasant if held a month earlier.<\/p>\n

Should I pencil it in?<\/p>\n

What do you think? If you had the power, would you move Thanksgiving? Let me know in the comments, please.<\/p>\n

Please like Mom Factually on Facebook<\/a>.<\/strong> You can also find MF on Pinterest<\/a>, Twitter, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:<\/strong> 8 fun facts about fall<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poor, poor Thanksgiving. It’s becoming the forgotten holiday, stampeded by Christmas. That was painfully obvious to me yesterday when I went shopping to pick up a few little things. I missed the memo that I should have already made my list and be checking it twice. I’m not ready for Santa yet. I’d rather celebrate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[263],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6073,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions\/6073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}