It is early November and Christmas marketing is appearing everywhere. Really, am I missing something or did Madison Ave. & Wall Street just skip over Thanksgiving? It’s like “retail America” has no morals or traditions worthy of preserving when it comes to the cash register! Christmas advertising has bypassed.
Thanksgiving is in the mad race for retail dollars.
It’s not like we who live here have trashed the traditional Thanksgiving holiday. Millions of families will travel great distances, make sacrifices to be with family and close friends. All in order to be together and thank God for our blessings. The day will be observed by nearly all Americans-except a few Atheists (very few). Jews, Muslims, Christians and other people of faith will pray around the abundant food, holding hands with family and friends, giving God His rightful blessing of a “Thank offering.”
The homeless and the otherwise poor will be fed in thousands of food lines provided by caring, loving Americans, who want to share the blessings God has bestowed upon them.
So, it is not that the holiday called Thanksgiving has fallen into a “lost favor pit” or trash can. It has not. But it is a commercial fact that Thanksgiving does not produce enough retail revenue to merit Wall Street or the advertising merit of approval. Apart from the grocery industry and a few others, not that much money is made off Thanksgiving. Maybe we should pause and be thankful for that! Because if it did make big bucks, the wolves who ate up Christmas would devour Thanksgiving Day too!
Fact is-we as serious Christ followers have all but lost Christmas to big bucks America. The wolves of Wall Street have taken it over. Santa has dethroned the Christ-child! Baby Jesus is no longer invited to His own birthday party; at least not the media or Madison Avenue party. Thanksgiving is being ignored for much the same reason that a Christ-filled Christmas is being ignored-it makes no money! It is too narrow a demographic, too exclusive, and thus not profitable.
The retailers have become the modifiers and the revisionists. They have made Christmas into their own image, using God’s greatest gift (His Son) as an excuse for excessive gift giving and thriftless spending.
Profitable– that is the word of choice in November and December American capitalism. That’s why poor ol’ Thanksgiving got passed over in the race to Christmas. There just isn’t enough profit in Thanksgiving Day! What’s a Turkey and a few cranberries in the bigger scheme of things?
So, having said all this- what is to be learned about the “American way” of celebrating these Holidays? My conclusion is that those of us who are traditionalists and value our values need to realize we are in a fight to the finish. The secularists, the materialists and the merchandisers are many and we are the few. They have invaded our homes (TV) our lives and our culture. They want to take America over in their siege. Well- I for one will resist. Thanksgiving Day is vital to our historical way of life in Judeao-Christian America. By being grateful, thankful, and humble, we speak loud and clear that for some in this land it is still about God and country, not retail profits, and Christmas without Christ. I will have more to say about that next time. However, let’s get Thanksgiving behind us first!
Gather your friends and family, love them, thank God for them, and even plan to share your blessings with those less fortunate. Offer our Heavenly Father a thanksgiving prayer, then go forth living daily in thankfulness for God’s greatest gift-His Son!