Ugh...the Xmas commercials have started

I often hear people say this; Thanksgiving gets overlooked and Christmas comes earlier and earlier. I'm from Belgium where we, obviously, don't celebrate Thanksgiving. So I have a question, my apologies if I don't word this right...

Prior to Christmas being pushed what was done in regards to Thanksgiving? My husband, an American (53yo), says that while he doesn't recall this early push for Christmas when he was younger he also doesn't recall anything Thanksgiving specific either. He says some tv shows had a Thanksgiving themed episode but he doesn't recall any commercials for Thanksgiving or decorations etc

I'm in my late 30s. I've been in America since the mid 90s. I agree that stores seem to push Christmas a little earlier each year. However for the years I've been here I don't remember anything Thanksgiving related as far as stores,decorations,tv etc.

So I guess the question is what used to happen in regards to Thanksgiving that people are missing because Christmas is over-riding it? Does that make sense the way I've worded it? lol

As for me, I love Christmas. I do shop super early so as to be done and not stressed during the holiday. But I don't decorate until after Thanksgiving. We usually decorate,put up the tree etc the first weekend in December. I admit though that I start listening to Christmas music sometime in November.

That makes sense. I guess with people saying, here and in IRL, that Christmas is taking over Thanksgiving and they miss the way it used to be etc that I took it more as something had changed or was missing. The comments always come across to me as in the past something was done in regards to Thanksgiving and it's no longer done because of Christmas. I think it's a language barrier. lol Thanks for the reply.

I agree too btw. As much as I love Christmas, and I do appreciate being able to work on Christmas crafts early and buy items for St Nicholas Day, I think the full onslaught could wait until December 1st. lol

I saw my first Christmas commercial at least a month ago. It's bad enough now, but the beginning of October?!

Thankfully I have Netflix. I have cable but I don't even have it working. It is nice not to have to deal with them.

I'll take Christmas commercials over political commercials any day.  

I think what people are missing is the nice lull in activity between Halloween and Thanksgiving. There used to be nothing in that space. Just fall, harvest if you're in an agricultural area, and prepping a home for winter to demand your attention. After back to school, fall sports, and Halloween, it was a quiet space in life to focus on home and family before the frantic pace of Christmas, shopping, programs and parties took over for the one month between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

While I am only in my late 30's, I remember seeing Christmas decorations in stores before Thanksgiving. Ads on tv and gift guides before Thanksgiving too.

For many families, they get together at Thanksgiving and celebrate Christmas as well.

Now was it out before Halloween? No.

But that doeant bother me.

Commercialism doesnt run my holidays. I control that. My parents did when I was a kid and living at home.

Just because the decorations are out and the commercials playing doesnt mean we wont celebrate Thanksgiving how we see fit.

Eh. Doesnt bother me.

justkat Back when I was young (almost 50 now) Thanksgiving was a thing. Pretty much everyone had the day off work. Families made an effort to have a big holiday meal and everyone got together for it. Most of my grandparents were gone and the one grandma that was left lived a couple hours away (plus she was elderly and didn't drive, and we had a big family so it would be hard to get everyone anywhere all at once) so we stayed home and hosted a few of my mom's single siblings for dinner every year.

We younger kids would watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on tv in the morning while the older kids and my mom made the feast in the kitchen. They had big airblown (helium? Hot air?) shaped balloons in all of the popular cartoon characters of the day, so we kids would watch for our favorites to come down the parade route, and at the end of the parade Santa would come along in his sleigh ushering in the Christmas season.

We never pulled out any of our decorations or put up our tree until mid-December. LOL, I'm sure my mom could really only stand to have the house in that much disarray for 2-3 weeks. 

In our house now, it's not as big of a deal as it was when I was a kid. DH makes a turkey and I usually make homemade bread and a pie or two like my mom did but that's about it. We don't go anywhere or host anybody. For the last few years we've gone to pick out our live tree sometime the weekend of Thanksgiving. We don't go out shopping on Black Friday or really anytime that whole weekend other than to get the tree. By the time New Year's Day rolls around, the tree is pretty much dried out and dead and I'm tired of vacuuming up the needles so I'm ready for things to get back to normal by then.

I watched the Grinch that Stole Christmas today since I was working on Christmas cards. Not sure what I'll watch tomorrow, but I will be working on more cards

I have watched all the Christmas movies on Netflix already, and some on YouTube!  They make me happy.