Today: Mar 28, 2024

Thanksgiving against Christmas

               Thanksgiving

J’Mari HughesCopy Editor 

Thanksgiving is a bonding time for families to enjoy macaroni and cheese, cranberry sauce, stuffing and, of course, turkey. That one Thursday in November is something people look forward to every year. However, gathering with relatives to see the many floats of the Macy’s parade or watch Rachel Green bake beef into an English trifle cannot compare to the joy of Christmas. Like Thanksgiving, Christmas brings families together for fun and food, but with several added bonuses.

Pentatonix’s Mary Did You Know? — beautiful. Justin Bieber’s Drummer Boy — iconic. The Cheetah Girls’ Cheetahlicious Christmas — a bop. The second the last bite of the Thanksgiving meal is downed, it is time to blast Christmas music. There is nothing better than shuffling through the radio or walking through the store hearing the tunes that only play one month of every year. Whether you are sticking a Charlie Brown
esque Christmas tree on your windowsill or transforming your home into a winter wonderland complete with lights, stockings and tinsel, Christmas decorations set the mood for the holiday season. Throughout December, and even before then, one can drive down the street and see the glorious decorations flourishing (WC) from the homes of their neighbors or the gigantic Christmas tree displayed on their town’s green.

Finally, the astounding amount of Christmas specials — both movies and TV show episodes — make for an overall festive December, in which you can enjoy the holiday themed sticky situations and wacky scenarios of fictional characters as you await approaching Christmas antics of your own.

Just thinking about the Christmas season coming puts a smile on my face. The gifts, the snow, the month away from school — they all complete the perfect package of what I consider to be the best holiday. After all, they do not call it “the most wonderful time of the year” for nothing.

                  Christmas

Tamonda Griffiths — Editor-in-Chief

Now, while Halloween offers the chance for children and adults alike to rot their teeth from the inside out while dressed as this year’s incarnation of DC Comics’ ultimate supervillain, the Joker, and Christmas brings about visions of sugarplums dancing in their head. While they choke down a gingerbread man with a glass of fatty milk and parents squander precious hours of sleep to keep up the illusion that a man with a stomach so large when he laughs it shakes like a “bowl full of jelly,” neither of them can compare to patriotism and togetherness of Thanksgiving.

The first Thanksgiving, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica website, dates back to 1621, when the Plymouth colonists shared an autumn harvest feast with the Native Americans of the Wampanoag tribe.

A fixed date was not decided for Thanksgiving until 1941, by former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Britannica states.

Today, Thanksgiving is
celebrated just as the name suggests by giving thanks for what one has in their lives and giving to others. Goodwill, food banks and homeless shelters invite people to volunteer and help those in need who may not have loved ones during a holiday focused on the togetherness of friends and family.

Christmas, on the other hand, while it did once celebrate the same tenements of Thanksgiving as well as being a religious celebration in the Christian faith for the birth of Jesus Christ, now celebrates the vapid consumerism of a capitalist society dead set on having the latest iPhone to shove their nose into rather than makng eye contact with their fellow human beings.

There’s only so many times you can hear Mariah Carey’s rendition of “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” before it turns from melodic and festive to shrill, grating and irritating.

Thanksgiving has carols too, however, they are far lesser-known; does “The Thanksgiving Song” by Adam Sandler, ring any bells?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Latest from Blog

Don't Miss

Open campus has potential dangers to it

Nina Bartlomiejczyk — Copy Editor While Southern is generally a safe campus,

Columbus Day should not be celebrated anymore

Jessica Guerrucci — Managing Editor For years, the second Monday in October