It is official; the holiday season is upon us. Everyone is swapping their Halloween decorations in favor of Christmas lights and mistletoe. While I love Christmas more than the next person, people seem to forget that there is another holiday in between! Thanksgiving has repeatedly been overlooked as the great holiday that it is, and I am here to tell you why it is my favorite holiday.
What I think separates Thanksgiving from Christmas and makes it my favorite is the stress. For Christmas, there seems to be an endless amount of preparation. Most people spend hours decorating their homes; hanging ornaments on the tree, threading garlands around the house. Then there are the presents. Not only do you have to stress about what to get for people, but who to get gifts for. There is no worse feeling than receiving a gift from someone that you haven’t bought a present for. This is all just before the day has started. After you have beaten back the hordes of people in the grocery store to get the best ingredients for your holiday treats, and spent days cleaning and baking and preparing, you then have to cook all that food, wrap all of your gifts, and travel to family or host your guests. Frankly, I am stressed just thinking about it.
Thanksgiving, on the contrary, has just as much food and family, with a fraction of the stress. The only thing you have to worry about is choosing the proper pants that will expand with you as you eat. Without the pressure of gift giving and the possible disappointment, you get when you receive a Kohl’s gift card from your Aunt Angie, on Thanksgiving you can talk to her without that twinge of dismay. Cooking and baking become less of a chore and instead are a way to spend time with your family and learn about all the family recipes from your grandma. And also, who doesn’t love some mashed potatoes and gravy? Even if you aren’t a big pie person, the aroma of nutmeg and cinnamon wafting from the kitchen is still so warming and lovely you won’t even notice.
So all that I am asking is that this year you put a little more thought into Thanksgiving. I will admit, I have already started listening to Christmas music (I’m sorry but it’s just too good), but this year maybe try to think of Thanksgiving as a wholesome holiday to spend time with your family and eat good food, and not as Black Friday Eve.