Have you ever noticed when the Christmas commercials start airing? The answer is early November! Don’t you think that’s way too early?

Yes, I think that Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, but what about Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving seems to be left out because of this ongoing obsession with Christmas. And where does this obsession come from?

Companies, shopping malls, and businesses start too early so that they can make the profit they want. This is their last chance of the year to make a lot of money, and they try to get the best of it. Christmas is the time when people are more ‘open’ to spend money, buy presents, and give to others. That’s why companies take advantage of this by airing all these commercials.

Let’s not forget about the so famous Christmas music. Radio stations start playing it in mid November. Why would they start setting the Christmas spirit when Thanksgiving hasn’t even come?

Speaking from my personal point of view, as an exchange student, I have never celebrated Thanksgiving. That’s why I was so excited and looking forward to it.

Actually, I am the kind of person that’s obsessed with Christmas, but because I am experiencing American culture for the first time, I was more excited for Thanksgiving.

However, I felt like the excitement was stolen from me because of all the attention given to Christmas.

Thanksgiving is all about being grateful and spending time with your family, but it seems like people just gather up for a day and then everything goes right into Christmas.

But Christmas is different. The preparation and shopping take forever, and it starts in November with all the Black Friday sales starting Thanksgiving night, now.

And if we think about it, the presents are not even the most important thing. However, nowadays this is what matters to everyone.

And, unfortunately, I believe that these days presents are what all kids are taught, for them this is the tradition. So, now, they expect to receive presents every single year, but everyone grows up and should realize that this is not the meaning of Christmas.

Of course, there are some really positive parts of Christmas. This is the time when everyone out of the blue starts thinking about how many people need help, and people start coming up with charities and organizations.

This is great, but why is Christmas the excuse for doing that? There is a whole year to help those in need, but I think that we really only see them being helped around the holidays. What about the rest of the year? Leave these people who need help starving or without the things that are necessary for their everyday lives?

Thanksgiving can also be used for being good and giving to other people.

Overall, traditions should be valued among all the generations and every holiday, in my opinion,  should be appreciated and spent with your loved ones.