I love Thanksgiving!
My father always told me thanksgiving was his favorite holiday because there wasn't the expectation of gifts. I didn't understand when I was younger, Christmas was my favorite because there were gifts, so a holiday without any gifts or candy would be on the bottom of my list of favorite holidays. As I've grown up I've taken my father's side; every other holiday has become more and more about the aesthetics of the holiday and not the meaning of the holiday itself. Christmas is about poppy Christmas music, inflatable lawn ornaments, and red Starbucks cups; Valentine's day is about spending ludicrous amounts of money on your significant other; The fourth of July is about burgers on the grill and fireworks. Thanksgiving has not lost its meaning, it's hard to consumerize a meal with family and loved-ones. Sure there are still attempts, Black Friday was created for the soul purpose of making a profitable day around the Thanksgiving season, but with the rise of online shopping and countless stories of people being trampled in order to get a minorly discounted TV, it seems to have faded away somewhat. Instead it seems like the powers at be are trying to instead erase Thanksgiving, demonizing family, making the proverbial "right-wing uncle at Thanksgiving dinner" your enemy. As well as misrepresenting what Thanksgiving is about, acting as if it is celebrating the genocide of native Americans. They've slowly crept the beginning of the Christmas season earlier and earlier to the point that Thanksgiving is all but ignored in marketing campaigns.
Fortunately Thanksgiving does not need to be marketed to stand strong. The joy of spending time with those you love will forever be stronger than any manufactured good or marketing lie. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!