Black Friday

A while ago I wrote a blog entry commenting that the beautiful thing about Thanksgiving is corporate America never really found a way to commercialize it.  They had to come up with Black Friday. 

Fine, we’ve eaten our turkey and cranberry sauce, and now if we want to hit the stores it’s legit.  The Christmas season is upon us so let the madness begin.  Of course they’ve tried to expand Black Friday into Black Friday Week, and while we were peeling the turnip and butternut squash, we were enticed to drop the paring knife and go shopping.  Most of us were too busy.

In my fogy wisdom I say, if you like the excitement of lining up at 12:01 a.m. and stampeding for Black Friday discounts, go for it.  Personally I add up the dollars to be saved and weigh them against the work of fighting the crowds.  Then I stay home. 

I have my own tradition for the day after Thanksgiving.  I put Handel’s Messiah on the stereo. Then I get two slices of hardy bread, load them with turkey, a dab of cranberry sauce, a hunk of stuffing, and a little mayonnaise.  “For unto us a Child is born. Unto us a Son is given,” the chorus sings.  For me the new season begins. 

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer has to wait until later.