Posted on 11/18/2012 1:17:47 PM PST by Libloather
Is Black Friday edging out Thanksgiving?
By Bob Greene, CNN Contributor
updated 10:27 AM EST, Sun November 18, 2012
(CNN) -- The debate over whether the hand-to-hand-combat excesses of Black Friday represent a grotesque over-commercialization of the holiday season has lost its meaning.
The point is no longer whether or not Black Friday tarnishes the holidays.
The point is that Black Friday has become a holiday of its own.
It will arrive again this week, even as Americans are still sitting at their Thanksgiving dinner tables. Black Friday -- with its door-buster sales, hordes of frenzied shoppers shoving for position, employees nervously waiting for the onslaught -- has shrugged off the confines of its name and has now established squatters' rights on Thursday.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Especially those looking for homosexual agenda promoting T shirts.
I had to walk across the room to check ours after reading that.
Our school district also has "Winter Break" written across the last part of December and first of January, but "Christmas Day" is clearly written on the 25th. I can't really complain about the term "winter break" because that's what it is -- spanning across two major winter holidays.
Thanksgiving holiday (two days) is labeled as just that.
Spring break here is nowhere close to Easter.
The one really politically correct thing is that "KWANZA" is labeled on December 26th. Probably no one within 200 miles of here celebrates that (if anyone).
This is what happens when people don’t have jobs, and are getting government checks. They have nothing better to do with their lives than sit out in line for a week.
Of course, if they got a minimum wage job for the hours they sit in this line, they’d make a lot more money than they could possibly save, and they’d be able to use it to buy what they want, not whatever the sale item is at Best Buy.
What I like to do is show up somewhere after the opening, and see if I can grab a sale on something I actually needed. Actually, last year what I decided I liked to do was to sleep in late, and then work on the christmas lights.
Some of the black friday deals really are good, and if I could be sure to get them, I would happily get up early and drive to the store. But I won’t wait for hours in line for a mere chance.
Interestingly, I find these sales are discouraging. If I know something was on a black friday sale, I can’t bring myself to buy it later for more money, because I KNOW I could have gotten it cheaper.
I’ll admit I found it fun last year to try to grab the Amazon quick-deals. It was like a game, but I’m going to try to avoid that this year because I still have a few things in my house in boxes from last year, because I never used them.
Ahhhh.....lots of wine and then throw them all out. ;)
KWANZA. The holiday brought to you through the courtesy of the FBI.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1754842/posts
It is the same here. About 10 yrs ago I put my foot down and said ‘STOP’ with Christmas. We only buy for the kids. Christmas Eve we have a large open house for family and friends....tamales, rice, and beans with drinks, kids and all. We usually have about 40 people here and everyone loves it. Christmas Day is a great dinner with family.
I used to hate Christmas but loved Thanksgiving. Now I love the holidays all the way through.
Black Friday on Thursday; 50% off sales on Saturday because holiday sales will already be so bad.
I cannot imagine trying to shop in such a crowd.
Have none of these people heard of the internet? I buy through WalMart’s web site quite frequently. You can get it delivered to your door or to the store. There’s not a sale in the world worth messing with a bunch of crazy people for.
Another TV? a little bigger or with some "better definition" that practically no one can make out the difference?
Quite frankly I go to electronic centers and can't see anything that I'd want to buy -- i'm happy enough with my 5 year old MP3 player and 6 year old DVD/CD music player.
i'll buy books yeah, but more than that, i'd rather spend time with people I care about.
People who worship Mammon realise that Mammon doesn't satisfy..
funny story -- we got a puppy last year and for a few months I went nuts and bought expensive puppy toys. She played with all of them just for some time and got fed up. But the thing she loves the best and never tires of is any stick she finds :) Free, yet satisfying
And people are the same -- the best things in life ARE free
As parish priest, Vianney realized that the Revolution's aftermath had resulted in religious ignorance, due to the destruction of the Catholic Church in France. At the time, Sundays in rural areas were spent working in the fields, or dancing and drinking in taverns. Vianney was astonished, especially since Sundays were meant to be reserved for religion.
I look forward to the Friday afternoon news hilights of all the mob rushes, tramplings, stabbings, tazings and arrests.
I have no sympathy for these idiots. I don’t care if silver-haired grannie is trampled to death. She got in line, she takes her chances.
No sympathy.
She got in line, she takes her chances with the rest.
Coincidentally, here is something recently written and said by Cardinal Dolan:
“. . .We work at giving our people good examples of humble, repentant pastors, aware of our own personal and corporate sins, constantly responding to the call of Jesus to interior conversion. Remember the Curé of Ars? When a concerned group of his worried supporters came to him with a stinging protest letter from a number of parishioners, demanding the bishop to remove John Vianney as their curé, claiming he was a sinner, ignorant, and awkward, St. John Vianney took the letter, read it carefully ... and signed the petition!”
In my experience going way back till the present.....after the family has gone home, the rest of the night is spent rinsing the dishes in the sink, scraping the gravy-encrusted plates, laboring over the big, grease-laden roasting pan, denuding the turkey carcass and wrapping and loading the infinite variety of leftovers into the fridge, not to mention soaking the tablecloth for overnight to take out any wine or cranberry stains.
Then fall into bed from UTTER EXHAUSTION after 3 solid days of shopping and prep work for the big day. Who on earth but an addled shopaholic wants to haul off to the mall after all this????
This is all in good humor, of course, although perfectly true. To me all the work associated with putting on a Thanksgiving dinner is a labor of love for family togetherness and religious gratitude.....and it provides me and most folks, I'm sure, with psychological satisfactions no amount of avaricious, frenzied shopping at WalMart or Target can ever duplicate.
Leni
That sounds beautiful!! I wish we had such special times when I was growing up! But thakfully, I now have an 18 month old of my own & intend to make some great memories!! Thaks for sharing yours!
I just reread the post. We were dressed that year as the Holy Family for our annual christmas picture which we sent to friends and family
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