Well, Halloween has come and gone, so now we can all get amped up for the Christmas holiday season, right?

Christmas songs have already started playing on the radio, Walt Disney World has their holiday decorations up, Mariah Carey announced that she is ready for the Christmas season (as if anyone cared), and retailers are touting their holiday deals.

Hang on – how about we pump the brakes on all the “holly-jolly” there for a minute.

Aren’t we forgetting something?  What about Thanksgiving?  Why has this holiday been lumped in with listening to a ‘Nickelback’ album or watching Guy Fieri on the Food Network?

What did Thanksgiving do to deserve this nationwide shoulder shrug of indifference?  Are we not “thankful” anymore?  The only place where you can seemingly see that someone cares about the Thanksgiving holiday is at the local grocery store, where turkey gravy, canned cranberries, and French’s crispy fried onions (for the green bean casserole) are in plentiful supply.  Turkeys are beginning to make their appearance in the meat section, and the bags and bags of stuffing cubes are stacked like bread fortresses in the back of the store.

Do kids even learn about Thanksgiving in school anymore?  Do they get to hear the story of Chief Massasoit, Squanto, and Miles Standish, or do they have to watch “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” to even hear these names mentioned?  I know that the “pilgrims and Indians” motif is a big “no-no” in the class room these days (heck, even Halloween has been rebranded as a ‘Fall Festival’), but do kids get to do anything fun, like trace their hands on a piece of paper and decorate it as a Thanksgiving turkey?  Come on, somebody is missing out.

Thanksgiving is usually the first big “family celebration” of the holiday season.  Love it or hate it, getting together at Grandma’s house to sit at a table for a customary feast is part of the family tradition.  Who doesn’t love a good, crispy piece of turkey skin stolen from the kitchen as Dad tries to carve the bird?  When else will you have to suffer through those god-awful candied sweet potatoes, with a sauce so thick and sugary that it will make your eyeballs flutter with every bite? 

Who doesn’t enjoy watching Uncle Marvin trip over the coffee table after he’s had one too many while watching the afternoon football game?  Yes, you’ll have to give Aunt Edna a hug (even though she smells like cat hair, mothballs, and Benson Hedges cigarettes), but she means well – plus, she wants to hear what you want as a gift for Christmas, so that’s a plus.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, too many mashed potatoes, and an afternoon nap before tucking into a big triangle of pumpkin pie slathered in “Cool Whip” – that’s what Thanksgiving is all about.  Sure, getting together with the relatives and celebrating is great, but at the end of that exhausting day, it’s hard to beat a late-night, leftover turkey sandwich, eaten over the sink in glorious silence.

Once all that is out of the way, then (and only then) can we start talking about the Christmas holiday.

And that is what the craziness of “Black Friday” kicks off, but that’s another story.