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Published on 11/16/1998 All articles from this issue

Don't take our Thanksgiving away

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By Clyde Noel

A Side of Clyde

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I don't know who decided, but I get this feeling some of us want to forget it and move right into the Christmas season. I hate to see it go because we need a good, quiet, low-key holiday once in awhile. But the way stores are stocked, Thanksgiving appears to be glossed over.

The morning after Halloween, I walked into the local Safeway. The aisle that featured candy corn and spiced wafers the day before was now stocked with Christmas wrappings and tiny tree lights. Poinsettias graced the entrance. The PA system whispered Kenny G and "My Favorite Things."

The next day, I went to Walgreens. In the wine and spirits section, the clerk was unpacking Christmas decorations.

I like Thanksgiving, and I want to see it stay. You see the family, have a few drinks and wait all day for the turkey. You eat dinner at 4 p.m. and then fall asleep on the sofa at 7 p.m.

On Thanksgiving Day, I'm grateful for all the turkeys except those we have in Congress this year.

If you're a marketer, you know Thanksgiving is dead weight other than selling turkeys and turkey stuffing. As an engine of consumption, it's pretty much a non-starter.

No one has come out to announce Thanksgiving is dead, but it seems to be getting less important until it will virtually disappear like Flag Day and Washington's birthday.

Let's not let Thanksgiving become an appendix next to the Christmas shopping season.

What marketers want us to do is have a scary pumpkin face on the front door one day and a wreath with a red bow the next day. That can give us seasonal vertigo.

The day after Thanksgiving is the official opening of the Christmas shopping season.

What they are telling us is the holiday season isn't long enough to decide what we want, and we should have more time to buy more merchandise.

For me, I can stand about six hours a year in a mall like Valley Fair or the Stanford Shopping Center. You walk through Sears, throw a couple of coins in the Salvation Army bucket, look in the windows at Victoria's Secret and visit Macy's. And then it sure feels good to go back to downtown Los Altos.

Pacifists like Monday Night Football better than I like the holiday gift-buying season. I have developed defense mechanisms against it.

Frankly, Christmas shopping should last no longer than it takes to open the presents on Christmas Day. That way, you can begin your holiday buying season when you want.

I want to enjoy Thanksgiving. Most of us go through the days and weeks of our lives too busy to think about being thankful for anything. If we're employed, and everyone in the family is healthy, we tend not to acknowledge how good things really are.

I'm just going to take the day off and sit around appreciating how lucky I am and hope you can say the same.

Pass me the spiced wafers. I think there's still some candy corn left in the jar.

Clyde Noel is a longtime contributor to the Town Crier.