IN DEFENSE OF THANKSGIVING

Last week I found myself giving a lecture on why Christmas music isn't played before Thanksgiving to an administrator at my daughter's pre-school.

Don't get me wrong; I love Christmas. I have buckets of Christmas decorations that my husband dutifully hauls down from the attic each year. I have hundreds of Christmas songs in my iTunes list. My Christmas cookies can beat the shit out of the Pillsbury doughboy's Christmas cookies. I have Christmas shirts and I have magnets that go on the car (Yes, I am that goofball.) I say "Merry Christmas" not "Happy Holidays."

But I do all of this AFTER Santa Claus comes town at the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. In America, that is the beginning of the Christmas season. 

The key to that phrase, I have found, is "in America." Did you know, that it is impossible, for me as a white woman, to not sound like a redneck while beginning a sentence with "In America…"

But that is the key phrase IN MIAMI, and NOT BEING HISPANIC. 
My daughter's daycare, which I love, is very hispanic. Sam comes home saying "Agua" and "Caca", not "Water" and "Poo-poo".

Sometimes we Americans forget that Thanksgiving is an AMERICAN holiday. It feels like a religious holiday to me. It's Christmas without the presents. You have the 3 F's: Family, Friends and Food; and it's a time to be thankful for the blessings in your life. It's a purer form of Christmas really. A more sacred holiday, though technically a secular holiday.

For immigrants to this country who came over late enough to have not been raised with the diluted history of pilgrims, turkey and indians, and without the tradition of family, food and thankfulness, it just seems to be in the way. If you aren't American, then Thanksgiving doesn't get in the way and the Christmas season seems to start earlier.

So I understand. I get it. But you are still wrong and stop playing "Feliz Navidad" in Novemember. Why are you wrong? Because I'm writing this in Miami. And though it is commonly thought to be the northern annexed territory of Cuba, Miami is technically "In America." And "while in Rome, do as the Romans do." We are In America. Please respect our first, and most sacred National Holiday. Please respect Thanksgiving.