"RETURN TO THANKSGIVING"" 

Before I could wave good-bye to a relaxing Thanksgiving, the Christmas rush slapped me in the face with the commercials offering the Christmas best-buys, the race to get all the parties scheduled, and the anxiety of getting all the gifts bought, wrapped, and delivered before the 24th. It crept into the kitchen before we could get the Thanksgiving dinner dishes put up. It all happened too quickly. I wanted to shout, “Just wait a doggone minute! It’s still Thanksgiving” 

It wasn’t always like this. When you’re young, Christmas seems to creep along. The longest month is December. And it all slows down in direct proportion to the number of days until its arrival. The 24th seems like at least three days, if you’re a kid. And, the more you anticipate, the more you agitate all those around your little child world. You can do nothing to hasten its arrival. All the wishing doesn’t make it so. Christmas hides around the corner, peeks and teases as it coaxes you to “come and get me.” But of course it can’t be caught until the morning of the 25th. 

The older you get, the less you wait for Christmas. It bulldozes its way into your life. Of course, I’m talking about the commercial Christmas. It can be brutal. If you don’t believe me, just ask my wife. She just walked, excuse me, crawled, into the front door. Fatigue is written all over her beautiful face. You see, she took five children---all teenagers---shopping. If that doesn’t place her on the inside track for “Mom of the Year,” she took them today of all days. It’s Black Friday, so called because it’s the busiest, biggest, baddest shopping day of the year.  

She called me several times. “You won’t believe the traffic. It’s horrific, the crowds unbearable, the lines endless.” It’s a shame I couldn’t make the trip. But with all this work piling up, I had no choice. At least that’s the story I’m staying with! And, of course, they just had to get that shopping done. It’s a Christmas requirement, a seasonal necessity. How else can you keep Christmas at bay if you don’t take the offensive and attack before it pounces on you when it’s too late to get the best buys and choices? It’s a matter of survival. 

I thought about this day yesterday as my family sat around the table after our Thanksgiving feast. All six of us had helped in preparing the meal. It was a family event. And each one of us paused to tell of at least one thing for which we were thankful. 

I enjoyed that unusual moment of family leisure, nourished as it was with a spirit of gratitude. As I reflected there in my respective place at our dining-room table, reserved as it is for special occasions as these, I recalled something my oldest daughter had commented on earlier in the week.

Mary-Elizabeth had been on a school sponsored trip to Charlotte, North Carolina. It was a part of her involvement in Family Career and Community Leaders of America. She heard from a variety of speakers and workshop leaders as they sought to fulfill the mission of that organization to prepare students for the future. 

Yet, the most important thing she learned didn’t come from the conference itself. She happened on a Nordstrom’s Department Store window. A sign in the window said, “Our Christmas window will not appear until after Thanksgiving. We are taking one holiday at a time.” 

I called Nordstrom’s. This is apparently a store policy. I like that, not only because they are not afraid to use the word, “Christmas,” but also because maybe, just maybe they recognize the importance of stopping to give thanks before rushing headlong into the Christmas dash toward the materialistic finish line of getting all you can while you can. 

Maybe that’s too generous for a department store. But this I know: before we wrap ourselves in the Christmas craze, we should stop and give thanks for the Christ child. Let the fingers of November massage your soul with a soothing caress that brings to mind the gentle reminder that Christmas in all its joy cannot be truly experienced apart from Thanksgiving, true thanksgiving. If you missed it, it’s never too late to return to thanksgiving. Try it, and I think you’ll see that Christmas gets here sooner for some and forever for others, as a place of gratitude for its true meaning of a child who came and gave and saved.