Have a Happy Thanksgiving, a Merry Halloween and a Scary Christmas

I always did have a problem while growing up when we would harvest our garden in September and early October, but not celebrate Thanksgiving until the end of November. It was refreshing during the 2 years I lived in Canada to enjoy Thanksgiving on October 10, it helped make sense of the holiday.

Then as I grew older, it became irritating when the national holidays were assigned to the closest Monday. So Lincoln's birthday was February 12 and Washington's was February 22 but we would celebrate both on a Monday in between. I could almost accept that. But when Memorial Day was changed to the last Monday in May and Veteran's Day became the second Monday in November, it didn't take long to have trouble remembering that Veteran's Day was really November 11 and Memorial Day was May 28,... or was it the 31. (Oh well, does it really matter any more?)

I was gratified to realize that there was something sacred about Christmas, the Fourth of July and New Year's Day. I know there is nothing sacred about New Year's Eve, but it would have been very confusing to have it the last Monday of December or the first Monday of January if New Years Day was still on January 1. I suppose we could have had New Year's Eve and New Year's Day on the same day??

But back to the point. I walked into Walmart the other day, and noticed that the Halloween promotions were already displayed. I quickly calculated that with Halloween starting 6 weeks before the actual activity, we had about 3 weeks until the Christmas decorations arrived and 4 weeks until the Hanukkh menorahs lined the isles but I think someone forgot all about Thanksgiving. Well not forgot, everyone will want to take Friday off of work, but there certainly isn't any time or space in the media or markets for William, the Pilgrim or Tom Turkey.

So to make sure I have this straight, I need to buy the kid's Trick or Treat costumes on the way home from Back to School night so I will have plenty of time to shop for Christmas before I buy the pumpkins to carve before the candy is gone and then I will still have time to buy those final items on the Christmas wish list when I purchase the turkey and cranberries, but I have to set aside some time to make a dreidel, set up the tree and grab some noise makers before they all dissappear and still make it on time to the family picnic on Labor Day.

It's no wonder that we feel that the Holidays are a little overwhelming.