Has Thanksgiving Been Forgotten?

I saw this today and it made me wonder, do we overlook November as the month of Thanksgiving? Retails do. Even when I had my store, I would attempt to wait until the last moment to put up Christmas items because I felt like we were losing the true meaning of the two holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. However, it was almost impossible not to have your things put out by the end of October. I was always shocked to be asked before Halloween, "When are you going to put your Christmas things out?" 

Part of this is the distributors fault, more so than the individual stores. When you go to market to buy the items for the holidays, you had to order your Christmas stock in January and it usually delivered in July. With limited storage space in most stores, retailers have to start putting it out on the shelves because there was no where else to put it. 

Personally, I miss the excitement of the Holiday items being "revealed" at Thanksgiving time. My favorite childhood memories include having Thanksgiving as a family, then the next day, yes, Black Friday, as the day to not only catch the great bargains, but to see all the decorations the stores had put up and had on display for sale. I would look around with wide eyed wonder at the incredible displays and interesting finds.

Now it seems that by the time Thanksgiving rolls around, we're already tired of seeing Christmas things and haven't even had the turkey dinner yet. November should be dedicated to giving thanks for all the great things that have happened to you throughout the year and your life. Not just the big things, but the little ones too. When December rolls around we should be remembering the reason for the season. CHRISTMAS... Christ's birth. 

So I say to each of you, have a very Happy Thanksgiving. Eat tons of turkey, ham, dressing, and all the fixin's. Enjoy your family and friends. But most of all, give thanks for all the things that you have been blessed with. I know I give thanks every day for my blessings, including my amazing son, his girlfriend, my best friend and co-author, and all the rest of my family and friends. May each of you be blessed this holiday season.