Thanksgiving, A Family Holiday Or Consumer Overload?

Do I hate Thanksgiving?

The answer is no. Of course not, but I do find Thanksgiving to be one of the funniest and largely hypocritical annual holidays we celebrate. I also find we have watched one too many Steve Martin and Charlie Brown movies as kids buying into what they say is the “true meaning of Thanksgiving.”

Truth be told, Thanksgiving is more like one dominant culture’s way of denying or minimizing the the larger historical context.

What might you say? In short, we get a day off to give thanks for what was really a genocidal campaign against indigenous people whose land we acquired.

Sorry to break your heart marked with ideas of gratitude, family gatherings, football and traditional meals that include turkey. For starters—I hate turkey. It’s usually dry and my mother nor any of the women in my family could ever properly prepare a turkey even if their life depended on it.

Furthermore, I also happen to come from a highly dysfunctional family. Someone always ends up offended, is going through some sort of detrimental break up, are experiencing a newfound “religious experience” and/or has simply been cast into the “black sheep group” where I am queen.

Pardon me if I feel the holiday identified with traveling home and turkey doesn’t have much to offer me. I also don’t care much for sports like football and Black Friday shopping.

Amongst the assortment of sights and smells, my mom and aunts will remind everyone that “Thanksgiving is a family gathering meant to give thanks for our many blessings.”

They clearly must be suffering from a severe case of amnesia because this has evolved into a day of strictly football amongst my uncles and all out shopping war for my aunts.

There is no way I am camping outside Kohls for a $4.99 sweater or a $199.99 laptop of which, there will only be three. Brace yourselves, Black Friday and Christmas shopping is about to begin.

Walmart announced last year it would be opening its stores at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving to begin its Black Friday Sales. Macys, Target and Kmart are also moving opening times to accommodate shoppers on Thanksgiving Thursday.

Suddenly, dinner is at risk and you have now become the latest contestant in what seems to be the hunger games.