Christmas in November? (analytical edit)

Christmas is right around the corner, it’s a time for breathtaking decorations, ugly sweaters, Cyber Monday deals and of course Black Friday. Wait let me back that up, I guess is more apart of Thanksgiving, no seriously stores are at the point where there open up for Black Friday right after you get done stuffing yourself to the brim with Thanksgiving foods. But be sure fit Thanksgiving in just after you make sure blanket your house in lights. Don’t get me wrong, I love the lights and the cheer, but when you put them up on Thanksgiving it just doesn’t feel like a Thanksgiving. It feels to me like Thanksgiving was originally a nudge on the arm saying “hey don’t forget to be thankful for Christmas..”, and maybe we overshadow that, maybe we take that for granted. If anything, turn off your Christmas music off, kill the lights and move your shopping plans over, and enjoy a meal worth giving thanks for, and Christmas will be waiting for you the next day.  While many may feel that Christmas does not impede on Thanksgiving, the evidence speaks to a different story that shines bright amongst all other truths, Christmas is the shadow at which Thanksgiving lives under.

Christmas is the pinnacle for those who celebrate it, and I feel most winter holidays carry more weight, but why is that? In Christmas’ case, there is a multitude of things, and the number one thing is gifts. Really the only other day/night that you will receive gifts, other than of course your birthday. Although it’s not always the gifts you will receive, but the ones you are looking to buy for that glorious winter morning, and what is the best way to get gifts? Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and any deal available. The objective is to get that person that one thing they have been dying for, and do so without breaking the bank into a million pieces. Black Friday has become more of a Black Thursday and then oh and Friday, stores are opening their doors earlier and earlier. Although an absolute circus now it started out as something innocent as can be read in the quote from Consumerism vs. Tradition: Is Black Friday Taking Over Thanksgiving? By Manali Basu, “It wasn’t until the 1960’s that the day after Thanksgiving began to gain recognition as Black Friday. Stores began to offer merchandise at discounted prices…”. That's where it all started, and it has grown beyond all expectations, and mow forced stores to open earlier. In an article on theodysseyonline, titled  All I Want for Christmas is Thanksgiving, author Mackenzie MacNeal is quoted as saying,” Black Friday is creeping its way into Thanksgiving Thursday as multiple sources have deemed it necessary to open at 11pm Thursday, as opposed to 12am Friday.”. This article was written in 2015 warning us of the eventual and sudden growth of phenomenon known as the “Black Friday creep”, and from then on it would grow and grow to this day. Reports of some stores opening for the event, while you and your family are sitting around the table, Laura Northrup a writer from a site called Consumerist, wrote in her 2016 article, Report: Macy’s To Open An Hour Earlier On Thanksgiving Day, stating that, ”Macy’s, which apparently has been so successful with the practice, that it’s reportedly moving it’s Thanksgiving Day time back an hour, to 5 pm.”. Taking all this in, Black Friday has been for a long time a carnival of crazed penny pinchers, and maybe moving it will help with this insane stampede mentality that it has adopted. Is what I thought, before seeing the video of people charging into stores on the news. Sure it is kind of creeping up on Thanksgiving, and threatening to engulf it, but what about the dangers not only for people but the people tasked with running the store, but everyone involved. This is kind of depressing, so why don't we think about the lighter side of a musical Christmas.

I hope everyone got my poor pun or can at least see the foreshadowing, that I left behind with the talk of Black Friday, and all that other jazz. Yes! It is time to talk about Christmas music, loved by millions and possibly disliked by the same amount for it’s repetitive nature. While browsing the web, I came across a very twitter heavy article released by indystar.com that weighed in on the debate of Christmas (music) in November.  The 93 WIBC Indianapolis ran a poll on their twitter asking fans if Nov 1st was too early to play Christmas music with two choices of either “Yes! Make it stop!” or “No! Bring it on!”, both highly aggressive choices in wording. Anyway, they later tweeted saying,” Nearly 75% replied with ‘Yes! Make it stop!’”, along with citing a plethora of mixed, which were mostly people just asking for it to end. When you think of cheer in Christmas, you think of music and presents, and of course decorations. Decorations are going up everywhere this time of year especially lights, but are they going up to early? After going over the 93 WIBC Indianapolis twitter poll, I kind of had a lightbulb moment when facing struggle of finding data  that was valuable on Christmas decorations, specifically lights,  so I said why not create my own data. Confirm or debunk my belief that a long with the Black Friday events and Christmas tunes, Christmas lights and decorations were encroaching on Thanksgiving as much as anything. Especially from all the house I had seen while in Lakewood, Colorado and now in Chadron, it seemed so certain. For the poll I asked the question ”When did you all decide to put up Christmas decorations, or even just lights around your home?”, with that I gave three choices, “Around Thanksgiving”, “Before Thanksgiving”, and lastly “After Thanksgiving”. Numbers don’t lie, and with 35 votes in total; 2 went to “Around Thanksgiving” giving it a whopping 6% of the vote, 3 went to “Before Thanksgiving” totaling a 9% chunk of the vote, and lastly with 30 votes for “After Thanksgiving” giving it the runaway lead at 85% of the vote. This struck some questions and a little bit of shock. Do lights make up enough of the holiday equation for this to debunk my claims? This allowed me to look at it from a different perspective. I feel all though lights aren’t represented well by the numbers, Christmas is still taking over holiday season, and maybe it is more visual than numbers can represent, the variables are vast but it’s not just me but a majority of the people I know who see it. Maybe after all this evidence, this one piece speaks to a different light, maybe not all parts of the Christmas equation are entered earlier than necessary.

Christmas has really began to outshine Thanksgiving with all of it’s elements between the dazzling lights, the one-time deals, and its propaganda. I am a lover of the holiday of Christmas, but miss those overpacked Thanksgiving dinners where there's too much food for the 30-40 people there to enjoy it. I miss what I represents, a time to enjoy the company of your family and not just a bridge between summer and Christmas to just get through.  What I hoped to accomplish with both the photo essay and this article, was not only to capture the creativity and embrace people lovely light work, but to look beyond and realize what a trend Christmas in November has become. I’ll let you decide if you agree with me or not, I do want to make it clear that I am not in any way against Christmas, but I do feel I am for tradition.
                  Signing off, Mack