By Ken Irving, Senior Reporter
America has been conditioned to believe that Christmas is a better holiday than Thanksgiving.
After Oct. 31, stores across the nation transition their decorations from Halloween to Christmas. The spooky orange and black colors change to crimson red and evergreen. Everyone’s homes switch from dark and gloomy to bright and full of Christmas lights. All eyes are on Christmas, but no one seems to think about the holiday between Halloween and Christmas: Thanksgiving.
The National Retail Foundation estimates that Christmas shopping in the United States exceed well over $950 billion annually. A primary reason for this is because stores have Christmas decorations on the shelves as early as October.
Christmas also has a significant number of symbols compared to Thanksgiving. For instance, Santa Claus, elves, Elf on the Shelf, reindeer, toys, Christmas trees and more. Christmas also has numerous cartoon characters affiliated with the holiday, such as Santa, Buddy the Elf, Rudolph, Frosty, the Grinch, the Nutcracker and more. It also has the baby Jesus.
Even the movie industry tends to lean toward Christmas. Movies such as “Home Alone,” “The Grinch” and “The Polar Express” have grossed over $1.5 billion in the box office.
In America, everything is tailored toward Christmas, and it just isn’t fair. Thanksgiving is by far a superior holiday.
The holiday war between Thanksgiving and Christmas dates to the 19th century. In 1863, during a horrific Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving to be on the last Thursday of November. In 1987, President Ulysses S. Grant passed a law, making Christmas and Thanksgiving federal holidays.
Thanksgiving is about putting your differences aside, forgiving your enemies and being thankful for all you have. Thanksgiving encourages you to give thanks for at least one thing, even if you don’t want to.
The story of Thanksgiving spans back over 200 years ago. The pilgrims sailed on the Mayflower from England to present-day United States.
They were met by Native Americans and war was imminent. A member of one of the tribes, Squanto, spoke English and made peace with both the Natives and the Pilgrims. The Natives and Pilgrims worked together for months by trading items and teaching each other how to survive in the New World.
The two sides would put away their differences and come together for the great feast known as the First Thanksgiving.
Today, we still celebrate that day by coming together as a family and eating with each other. Thanksgiving is the only holiday that you must put away your differences and come together as one.
On top of that, Thanksgiving food is superior to any other holiday. Whenever you think of Thanksgiving, you think of turkey, yams, mac and cheese, baked potatoes, potato salad, chicken, green beans, etc.
No other holiday is synonymous with this type of food.
In addition to great food, you can also watch football all day. The weather is usually nice during Thanksgiving, and you can play football in the backyard or watch the NFL.
The day after Thanksgiving is even better. Black Friday and Cyber Monday allow you to buy things that you can’t afford during Christmas time because all of the prices have skyrocketed.
The legendary cartoon “Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” says it best as the title character proclaims: “Those early Pilgrims were thankful for what had happened to them, and we should be thankful, too. We should just be thankful for being together. I think that’s what they mean by Thanksgiving.”
Thanksgiving is about spending time with your family, eating delicious food, watching football and enjoying time with one another because you never know when someone won’t be at the next Thanksgiving.