Tis the season to be jolly as the adage goes. And yet, what are we off carousing around and being jolly about? Do I spy Thanksgiving goodies and turkey-themed beverages offered up by our campus eateries or stores adorned with lively fall colors, stocked up on pilgrim hats and Indian moccasins? No, I daresay I don’t, because as of yet no one has found a way to ruin the best holiday in existence.
   Now before all of you Christmas die-hards start to sharpen your candy canes, allow me to continue. Thanksgiving is the rare holiday that seems to — for the most part — have escaped the insane commercialization that engulfs Christmas, Halloween, New Year’s and Valentine’s Day faster than the pilgrims swallowed turkey. This is not to say  there isn’t shameless marketing aimed at hawking off Thanksgiving cheer, but it’s really more like no one has figured out how to do it yet. This is evidenced by the shift from Halloween-themed items (costumes, candy, jack-o-lanterns and the like) to Christmas-themed items (gingerbread, trees, colored lights and the like) with nary a Thanksgiving promotion in between. Oh sure, there’s the occasional fast food promotion or grocery store turkey sale, but for the most part, there is an almost laughable lack of an attempt to sell you Thanksgiving. Why bother marketing cranberry sauce milkshakes or pictures with Squanto when Christmas is just around the corner? No one even bothers.
    If anything, November is usually used as a transition month from fall to winter and from Halloween to Christmas.  The biggest day of the Thanksgiving holiday isn’t even Thanksgiving anymore. It’s Black Friday, and what is Black Friday all about? Trying to snag those insane deals for all of your loved ones for Christmas. Christmas, despite Scrooges and rampant commercialization, remains king.
  It helps that Santa Claus, elves and decorated trees do seem a bit more glamorous than say, your Uncle Ed shoveling down forkful after forkful of stuffing. Still, it’s curious that no one has found a truly exceptional way to make a ton of money off the Thanksgiving holidays. One would think that some savvy businessman would have come up with a slew of Thanksgiving carols, pilgrim costumes, turkey-themed candies and other delights. And yet, aside from football, family and food, Thanksgiving doesn’t quite enjoy that commercial appeal that skeletons, Santa Claus, Baby New Year and Cupid all seem to have.
   This isn’t a bad thing. After all, the bombardment of holiday cheer (that is essentially just an attempt to get consumers to purchase something) can be a bit tiring. Actually, strike that — it can be extraordinarily tiring. Thanksgiving might not be as glamorous as its other holiday brethren (though it beats Arbor Day by a long shot), but this lack of successful commercialization really is something to be celebrated. Without being constantly reminded that there is, in fact, a holiday around the corner, people are given a chance to breathe and actually appreciate Thanksgiving for what it is. Sure, it might not have wrapped presents, heart-shaped candies, ghoulish scares or explosive fireworks, but it does have the quaint charm of family, which is something to be thankful for in and of itself.