bah, humbug

i love christmas! i always have. i've had a history of being overly generous at christmas (i just get so caught up in the season!) & one of the pleasures i've enjoyed for a long time is my habit of shopping year long for christmas presents. if i'm out & about, or happen to be traveling & i see something that i know is just perfect for susan or kathy or gigi or caitlin- well, it is soon purchased & in my possession & under the bed it goes to be stored until christmas. i have some people on my list that are really easy & fun to shop for & i often discover when i go to pull the boxes out that i've way overbought for them & have nothing for others because i forget what i've bought as the year passes. it's like christmas as i discover all the little treasures that i've collected throughout the year & start wrapping.

is that all? where's the rest?

& i love thanksgiving! what a great holiday. relatively without excess (except food, of course). just about gratitude & family & friends. at least, the thanksgivings i grew up with were that way. for the last 10 years, danny & i have rented a place in the outer banks of north carolina & had friends & family down for various parts of the week.

for the past few years, my parents have been unable to come due to health issues & two of the more regular couples that came have been unable to come, so it's just been us. we've enjoyed quiet thanksgivings with ourselves & sadiedog & it's a very relaxing week. if we want turkey for thanksgiving, we have it. if we don't- well, we don't. we are not tied to tradition. if we don't want to cook a big meal, we don't. it's rather liberating, actually! & a great tradition that danny & i intend to continue for a very long time.

so how does the title of this post relate to what i've written? it doesn't sound very 'bah, humbug', does it? until you mention BLACK FRIDAY......  Black Friday has now overtaken thanksgiving, or so it seems. now i love to shop as much as the next person. well, alright, that's not entirely true. i love to shop. a lot. i confess that i've never ventured out the friday after thanksgiving (kind of- i'll qualify that later). when did this Black Friday begin to take on it's own atmosphere?

 it seems to eclipse the holiday of thanksgiving now. although that isn't hard to do with christmas decorations going up right after halloween on november 1st (hats off to nordstrom, who has a policy of never decorating until the day after thanksgiving). this Black Friday thing is crazy though- people getting trampled, waiting in line for hours, stores opening at 12am, 4am, 6am.... i suspect the shoppers are serious shoppers, too. none of the southern gentility that might be present at other times- "no, go ahead. i'm in no hurry."

i am having soooo much fun!

now i have no doubt that there is a combat mentality about all this that unites the shoppers. kind of like 'i survived black friday 2011.' it just seems kind of sad that one of the last major holiday that had nothing to do with shopping has become tainted with this huge event of black friday. & the poor employees having to get up at these ungodly hours to report to work. of course, these are the same employees, usually working for the big box stores that work for mostly minimum wage & already work nights & weekends & long hours. most of them are pretty darn happy to have a job.  then again, i'm sure the customers are very nice & patient & just a joy to provide service to.......

  

 now, having said all that, i do enjoy hitting some stores the day after thanksgiving when i'm at the beach. our tradition of coming to the beach started many years ago when my friend jane owned a place in kitty hawk. we started coming down to spend the weekend of thanksgiving with her- we'd have dinner with the family & leave friday morning. back in those days (1986), thanksgiving weekend was known as an owner's weekend & was usually the last weekend the stores were open for the year, so everything was deeply discounted & jane & i enjoyed getting bargains. we continued that tradition for several years (eventually stopping in the early 1990's, i think) & then my family started renting a place & we came as a family. of course, thanksgiving is no longer an owner's weekend down here. it is big business & the stores still discount deeply. as the outer banks has taken on more of a year round population & feel, more & more stores/services are open year round. there are still many stores that do close for the season; however, some close for january & february only. you can find some pretty good deals. that is the only friday after thanksgiving shopping i've ever done- it doesn't even seem right to call it black friday shopping- it is so much more casual & laid back - although some of the big box stores on the bypass (kmart, walmart, tj maxx) may be more serious.

anyway, that's my lament for days gone by. life was easier then & so on & so on- it was nicer when we weren't so consumer driven, wasn't it?