The transition between Halloween and Xmas has gone from short to nonexistent from when I was a young child.  It's not that decorations and talk of turkey was prevalent in the days after we finished the candy, but we were not bombarded with red and green imagery while still in October.  It used to be that Black Friday was the thing that substituted Thanksgiving.  Judging by advertisements and media chatter, it seems now we stopped caring as much about Black Friday and are being conditioned to celebrate pre-Xmas in November.  I understand that Xmas sells and businesses want to exploit that idea as well as the feelings Xmas invokes in consumers. Hanukkah also takes place in December and part of it involves gift giving but for some reason, we don't see nearly as much blue and silver as as the red and green. I don't know or have ever heard of anybody that celebrates Kwanzaa.  I don't think Kwanzaa has its own TV special or movie so it too has not yet been properly exploited.
  In my younger years, Thanksgiving was all about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  I would wake up early and watch the news shows before the parade and then sit through the Broadway presentations until the fun parade started.  Remember when Rick Astley Rick Rolled everyone that one year?  As soon as Santa Clause closed out the parade, Thanksgiving was pretty much over for me.  In my mind, all that was left for the day was a boring dog show which by the way, is the last thing anybody thinks of much less would want to watch on Turkey Day.  Now we are stuck with it, so thanks a lot NBC.  Anyway, it was the dog show and then It's a Wonderful Life a bunch of times.  We ate dinner at night but as a kid, that's not really something you get stoked about, not right away at least.
  Eventually, I was old enough to wake up early (at 4AM) to go Black Friday shopping and that added another element of enjoyment to the holiday.  The day started great with the parade and was capped off with some early morning shopping fun.  At this point, I was beginning to appreciate family time at dinner a little bit more. I'm ashamed to admit that I did not discover animated Thanksgiving specials until I was leaving high school but I did and then I added A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving to my yearly Thanksgiving traditions.  This special is by far, the best and sweetest of all the specials, sorry Garfield.
  As an adult, I have still kept up with the specials, the parade and Black Friday but now I have come to value and look forward to family time.  That is the most enjoyable part of the day for me... especially if there's booze involved.  At some point, you just learn to appreciate friends and family and understand what the holiday is all about.  It's called adulting. #Weallgrowup #blessed. Personally, when I think of Thanksgiving now,  I remember all my own little yearly traditions as well as what we did on past Thanksgivings.  Along with getting older, those ideas evolved my concept of what Thanksgiving is.  Kind of like Voltron has many parts to make one bad ass whole, Megazord if you're too young to remember Voltron.
  Flash forward to present day, where the parade and animated specials aren't advertised as well (insert cable excuse here), Black Friday starts at 6PM but we still have the damn dog show.  How is a young kid supposed to find value or get excited for Thanksgiving?  Especially when commercials and decorated malls are telling them to go from Halloween straight to Xmas.  The worst part for me is that consumers are actually taking part and enjoying this time jump.  As of this writing, the local radio station is making the switch to 24/7 Xmas music in a couple of hours, it's November 10th.  One way to look at it is if we take away the more superficial aspects of Thanksgiving (television and shopping) we are left with the core ideas of the holiday; being thankful and family togetherness.  Like the dinner itself, we are left with the main course and no side dishes or desserts.  Does that sound fun? An adult can eventually find meaning in this but will someone please think of the children?


If for nothing else, how can we disparage one of the most iconic and amazing movies ever made?

Planes, Trains, & Automobiles