Being Thankful for Thanksgiving

The other day I overheard my seven year old daughter telling a friend that Thanksgiving is the worst holiday. I figured aside from her not liking poultry, maybe the reason was because Thanksgiving is not about receiving presents. Let's face it, most holidays starting with Valentine's Day and ending with Christmas have become so commercialized. Halloween is a day over and stores are out with Halloween costumes and Halloween candy and up with the Christmas decorations and Christmas lights. My five year old has been asking me since the first week of November how many days until Christmas? When I told him over fifty days and that we need to celebrate Thanksgiving first, he questioned why the stores had Christmas decorations up if Christmas was fifty days away and we still had to celebrate Thanksgiving?

Now I am asking myself the same question. When I was a kid, didn't the stores wait until after Thanksgiving to put up the Christmas decorations? I distinctly remember getting excited about Christmas when the advent calendar came out and I could count down the twenty-four days until Christmas. Now is the advent the whole month of November too? No, that can't be. That's just a part of America commercializing every holiday. Well this leaves me shocked, that to date, Thanksgiving has not become a gift giving holiday.

Now here's my goal: To make Thanksgiving a holiday my seven year old likes even if she won't eat the Turkey!