Each holiday should have its time in the spotlight
By Shawn Potter
Comment Staff
There are so many things to love about the fall season, however, one thing that seems to bury the joy is the sudden jump from one holiday to the next. From the tail end of Halloween to the middle of November, it seems as though the Christmas season is pushed in our lives faster than we can keep up.
I love to celebrate Christmas, along with watching all of the festivities and decorations that it comes with. However, I love Thanksgiving too. It seems as though society hasn’t made any real adaptation of the holiday in our stores and on the television commercials we watch.
I can remember a year ago watching a car commercial with a Christmas themed tone after having my Thanksgiving meal. I thought to myself, “You’ve got to be kidding me, wait until the first of December at least.”
I understand the reason behind all of the marketing though. To my knowledge, all of the advertising, decorations, and assorted holiday items being sold in the grocery stores stimulates the economy.
One example of a marketing tool that is used to pressure us as a society into buying now for Christmas is the notorious Black Friday. I have never attended a Black Friday shopping spree, and from the things I have heard and seen through videos about it, I can confidently say I’ll pass.
Besides making people suffer in the cold for seemingly endless hours outside all night, and then to go on a shopping mission in which everyone else appears to be the enemy, Black Friday just seems to take all of the fun out of shopping for someone you care about.
For as long as I can remember, there have been two major marketing engines in our society that work hard each year to push their Christmas items in the faces of its shoppers: retail stores and television commercials.
I consider them to be the marketing engines of our society because each year, they use their marketing techniques to make shoppers feel the need to buy ornaments and Christmas themed items in November. As a car needs oil to run effectively, they are the oil to the economy as its engine.
I have found that few stores can get away with selling holiday items sooner than others. It is always pleasant to walk into Yankee Candle, pushing myself past the overwhelming aroma of the hundreds or assorted candles to find a nice Christmas tree scented candle.
It has been a tradition at this point for my father and I to go to the Hallmark store, where we can browse the wall of holiday ornaments. For anyone who has not been into a Hallmark store, one key thing to know about their wall of ornaments is that they range from classical Christmas themed to action figures and beyond.
As much as I love to see the decorations, I also believe in giving each holiday its own credit. The only credit that Thanksgiving seems to get is the amount of turkeys that are sold in the supermarkets.
Society seems to have grown farther from taking each holiday into account before rushing to celebrate the next one. I know I am not the only one left who is still thankful for being able to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family, while at the same time appreciating the holiday for all it is worth.
Shawn Potter is a Comment staff writer.
