Look, I don’t want to alarm anyone, but Thanksgiving is past? How did that happen?

What this insidious passing of time says is that Christmas is less than four weeks away. Last night, I sat down to write out a list of what I’ll be getting everybody. This lasted until I eventually used up enough paper to deforest Canada and now I’m completely at a loss.

I love the holidays. I love everything about them. What I don’t love is gifting decisions.

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First we got amnesia about Christmas.

Now we, as a nation, have completely forgotten the true meaning of Thanksgiving. The reason for this sacred and special day.

We have rendered it no more than the girding up for frenzied Friday door buster sales and the shopping season that our nation’s retailers hang their hats - and NYSE ratings - upon.

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I pity the English, for they have no Thanksgiving.  Not just that, but they seem to harbor some animosity towards ours.  They always conveniently “forget” that we have a Thanksgiving holiday, or act like they’ve never heard of it, and schedule all sorts of deadlines for the Friday after Thanksgiving “on accident,” if you happen to work with a bunch of them. 

As an adult, or more specifically, as a mother, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  It takes the least amount of preparation and has the biggest payoff for the work you put into it.  No costumes to make or buy, no cards to send off, no secret shopping and hiding of goods, no worry about forgetting someone.  You have to budget time and money for the meal itself, but then with leftovers, you don’t have to cook again for a long time.

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