Debate stopped this year on stores being open for Christmas shopping on Thanksgiving. The first year stores changed their policy from opening in the early morning hours on black Friday to opening on Thanksgiving day, lots of debate ensued. Now, we have resigned to the fact. Thanksgiving has become synonymous for cheap shopping and great deals. The day a lot of people get the day to over indulge on food and look through ads preparing for the real holiday of consumerism the following month.
I want to flip the holidays. I want to take a break from Christmas and spend Christmas day giving thanks.
I have what I need. Honestly, most of my wants I own. I can think of things to buy or upgrade. I like to shop and am a sucker for sales. But I don't want presents this year. I want to wake up Christmas morning sit under my tree with my family around and be grateful for what I already have. I want to forcibly usurp Christmas gift receiving day and replace it for a day where I can give thanks for my family, my health, the doctors and surgeons who have helped get me healthy, my house, my clean water on tap.........
Today is giving Tuesday. There are a lot of gifts to buy today. I can buy an animal for a person from a Third World Country in honor of my dad who grew up farming. I can buy a sewing machine for a woman in a Third World country to start a new career after she was sold into sex trafficking. I grew up with my mom sewing and nothing could be a greater honor than to give another woman a chance to support herself. If my family buys me a gift, I hope it's medicine for someone over seas who can't afford it now. I have struggled with my health in a country I have access to medical care and have been blessed to afford it.
We can still have gifts under the Christmas tree. They will just be for people we will never meet. We can still open things on Christmas. It will just be envelopes revealing what was bought for someone else in honor of each other. It's a Christmas of Thanksgiving for what I already have and how blessed I am I can give to others!