I miss being young. Younger than I am now, I mean. The world seemed so much simpler then. I had such a small viewpoint of everything outside of me.
Thanksgiving used to just be a day to give thanks. As a child, it was three days off of school to eat a lot of food and visit family. Christmas was little more than present day and, if I remembered, Jesus’ birthday.
These holidays suck now. Thanksgiving is a celebration of a meal that never happened. All I can think of is how the “pilgrims” were actually violent colonizers. Plus, just like every holiday, the focus feels like it is more on advertising and capital than on the actual holiday.
Why do I need a day to tell me to be thankful, anyway? If I’m feeling thankful for someone in my life, I have a simple little ritual. Instead of waiting for the end of November each year, I just contact that person then and there and tell them I appreciate them.
Feel free to try this at home.
Thanksgiving always felt like a weird holiday to me. As a kid, I enjoyed the time off from school but hated the meal. I was a picky eater as a child (and honestly, I still am) and didn’t like most of the traditional foods of the holiday.
Plus, my family always said a prayer before the meal. While that’s not inherently weird, it was one of around three meals they prayed before every year. I remember I would interrupt the prayer and tell them Jesus didn’t care because he knew what we were thinking.
I went on to study the Bible, if only to prove to child me that he was right. Matthew 6:5 is clear: God knows what we want before we even say it. I should clarify that I’m not a Christian — maybe that’s another reason these holidays put me off as a kid.
After the nation finishes giving thanks, of course, people rush to the stores for sweet deals on game consoles and air fryers. Who hasn’t beat up a little old lady to get the last Xbox on Black Friday?
Once the pandemonium of those two days is over, it’s right into the Christmas season. They call it “the holidays” to be inclusive and politically correct, and I’m all for that, but there’s clearly one holiday being pushed into the mainstream more than any other.
Because Christianity isn’t dominant enough in our culture, two of the three days that most of the country’s businesses close are Christian holidays (Easter and Christmas, with the third being Thanksgiving).
As a kid, Christmas was present day. I got to see the cool things my parents scrounged up to impress me. They still get me some neat items, such as when I couldn’t find the limited edition Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon Anniversary set.
Now, it’s a day when everything is closed. I can’t go to the grocery store or the ice cream shop or the game store. I can go to my living room and my basement. At least Kwik Trip is always there for me.
What really bothers me about the Christmas hype is how dismissive it is of the other holidays that we are allegedly including in the season. Dairy Queen and Target are still open every day of Hanukkah. Why exactly is that?
To sum up, the holidays are a strange period of time for me now. What was once a bunch of time to take off of school and let loose has become a reminder of all the things I dislike about our culture.
Maybe someday I’ll start my own holiday that doesn’t have a backstory related to any country or religion I don’t care to celebrate. Maybe I’ll start “Present Day,” and it’ll be like Christmas except without all the stupid advertising and religious symbolism.
Tolbert can be contacted at [email protected]. Give him a present.
