It’s still a few days till Thanksgiving — even though most of us in America have many reasons to be thankful every day.
Do you remember when the “Christmas season” didn’t begin till after the Thanksgiving turkey and the leftovers were all devoured?
President Franklin D. Roosevelt meddled with the Thanksgiving date for economic reasons. He moved it “up” to an earlier date in November, instead of the traditional last Thursday, to lengthen the Christmas shopping season.
That stirred lots of complaints, though, and so Thanksgiving eventually was moved by Congress to the fourth Thursday.
The Christmas shopping season doesn’t “officially” begin until the day after Thanksgiving. But while some eager people begin their Christmas shopping early, some people (mainly men?) don’t begin their Christmas shopping — frantically — until Christmas Eve!