Now that Halloween is over, countless over-eager maniacs jump right into the Christmas season. Target is already selling penguin mugs, gingerbread house pillows, and fake evergreen trees, while my roommate and friends are already breaking out Mariah Carey and the Christmas playlists. I have many qualms with how society behaves, yet the annual dismissal of Thanksgiving and jump into the superficial ‘joys’ of Christmas bothers me to no end every single year. Personally, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and I am disappointed to see it overlooked each fall. However, I also think that the skipping of Thanksgiving is telling of where a lot of societal values fall and what people tend to prioritize in life.
I believe that Thanksgiving is a day to slow down, reflect, and (obviously) give thanks for your life and the wonderful people and things in it. Yet these important practices have been dismissed more and more, not just on Thanksgiving, but within daily life, as the years roll by. The second that it hits November 1st, almost all eyes immediately turn to look upon Christmas and wintertime festivities without any acknowledgement of November itself or its holiday.
This mirrors common behaviors that I know to be prevalent in my generation, but that I also think to be acted out almost universally. In our fast-paced society, immediate gratification is king and true fulfillment, which is more difficult to come by and requires patience and effort, is regarded as unimportant or almost unobtainable. Sure, everyone loves to idolize the ‘perfect’ lives of influencers, but hardly anyone is, one, recognizing that those lives are undeniably fake (and therefore should not be put on a pedestal), and two, realizing that if they are fake, they are actually unobtainable.
When we chase after something that is unobtainable, we are never able to be satisfied or feel fulfilled since our sights are set on things that genuinely cannot be reached. Yet we continue to prioritize this chase over practicing healthy gratitude, and I think that this behavior is what causes society to overlook Thanksgiving every year. The shininess and glitz of Christmas proves to be overpowering and so alluring that people blindly chase after the commercial joy that has come to be associated with the holiday.
But people can’t ever be truly satisfied with this kind of ‘joy’ since it is really just a front that masks and attempts to overcompensate for feeling true happiness and fulfillment (which cannot be bought), which falls into the pattern of chasing after fake lives and superficial likes on social media.
Thanksgiving represents the true respite that so much of society is reluctant to take part in since it isn’t as glamorous, “easy” to participate in, or shallowly celebrated as Christmas is. This season, I challenge you not to jump right into the carols, snowmen, and eggnog, but instead to lean into the Thanksgiving holiday and use it as an opportunity to practice slowing down and looking for fulfillment in the true joys you already have.