By Adrianna Ohmes

It’s the day after Halloween, orange and black decorations come down, fake spider webs come off bushes and walls, ridiculous amounts of fake blood gets wiped off floors and costumes are put back in the closet. You turn on the radio, and what’s the first thing you hear? That’s right, Christmas music. Whether it’s Mariah Carey singing “All I Want For Christmas Is You” or Judy Garland’s “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” you can find some sort of Christmas music on almost any given radio station.

I understand that the Christmas season is “the time for cheer” and I’m perfectly fine with everyone gearing up for the shopping season of the year, but what about Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is the time for family, the holiday for spending time together, but it gets overshadowed by the commercialized holiday, Christmas.

Christmas being the most advertised holiday of the year, has stores, like Kmart, who start running commercials for Christmas shopping starting in Aug. and Sept. Take their holiday layaway commercial as an example. And how can someone forget about Black Friday, the craziest shopping day of the year? People line up at crazy early hours after Thanksgiving to just go shop and supposedly “save” money, though really all their doing is fighting over the one item that they want. When there is really only one of that item in stock.

Yes, Thanksgiving has become more of a holiday where you eat and watch football. That’s what happens at my house with my family. I won’t see my relatives except four times a year, two of which happen to be Thanksgiving and Christmas. While Christmas has the pressure of buying presents for your relatives, Thanksgiving has a more relaxed vibe. People may freak out about the feast, but you really should just be happy that you’re spending time with people who care about you. Thanksgiving falls into the “season of giving” too, the season in which you give your family your time.

I propose to you that you should forget the commercialized holiday of Christmas the whole day of Thanksgiving. Forget the hype of the “season of giving” because the least you can give to your family is one day of your full attention. Forget about the stress, the presents, the food, the tree, the decorations, and just devote your time to your family. That should be what the “season of giving” is about.