Get the Biggest Aluminum Tree You Can Find

"Long before December 25th everyone is worn out, physically worn out by weeks of daily struggle in overcrowded shops, mentally worn out by the effort to remember all the right recipients and to think out suitable gifts for them. They are in no trim for merry-making... They look far more as if there had been a long illness in the house." C.S. Lewis

Lewis wrote this over 50 years ago, but I can't help but think about these words this year. I just got back from a family Thanksgiving trip, in which there actually was a long illness that affected nearly everyone in the family. I'm thankful to look back on it and the time we spent with loved ones; there was very little time spent in overcrowded shops and the like. But I did hear on the news that this year's Black Friday was one of the blackest yet.

Here's a question: why do we allow Walmart, Target, Kohl's and others to justify opening their doors on Thanksgiving night itself? Do we not realize that the poor people who work in these stores largely miss Thanksgiving with their families, just so we can try to satisfy our insatiable appetite for more bargains and more things?

When people get trampled to death in Walmart, it isn't Walmart's fault. When 20 people get maced, it isn't security's fault for letting the culprit into the store. We and our appetites are the problem. You may be fine with Black Friday (and Thursday), and we can go around for days about whether it's worth all the effort to keep this tradition going. But I say it is not.

"I know how you feel about all this Christmas business, getting depressed and all that. It happens to me every year. I never get what I really want. I always get a lot of stupid toys or a bicycle or clothes or something like that." - Lucy, in A Charlie Brown Christmas