Thank goodness Black Friday is a one time deal. If there is one thing I despise about the holidays, its spending the day after Thanksgiving marching through overcrowded department stores to give up hard earned dollars for things that nobody really needs.
You know what I want to do the day after an enormous feast? Sleep. I suppose the Thanksgiving dinner is the fueling up process for some who see Black Friday as a competitive shopping extravaganza. In many ways Thanksgiving is similar to the pasta parties that I remember attending in high school to fuel up the day before a track meet. The main difference however, is that today no one is expending tremendous energy in a display of athletic ability. Today countless Americans will line up outside of shopping malls and retail plazas at ungodly hours in the morning all to spend obscene amounts of money on high tech gadgets and ten dollar pairs of jeans. The only athletic feat witnessed today may be that middle aged woman hauling a seventy-two inch flatscreen HDTV over a sea of people as she rushes to the cash register.
Why have we allowed our society to become so materialistic? I understand that Black Friday is an effort for some to be more frugal in the holiday season by scoping out the best deals, but is it really worth sacrificing a good night's sleep, personal safety, and let's be honest, a little dignity? I'd like to let you in on a little secret that is guaranteed to help you save money during the holiday season. All you have to do is buy less things. What are the holidays about anyways? Have we lost the true meaning of Christmas? I'm not arguing any breakthrough concepts here. To me Black Friday is not normal. That is not how I want my Christmas season to be kicked off. As a college student who doesn't get to see a whole lot of my family during the school year, the only thing I care about is spending time with the people I love. Forget presents under the tree. I can't stand the thought of my dear grandma waiting in a ridiculously long line to purchase me a gift that I didn't even ask for. As long as I'm with my family on Christmas and we have some pretty Christmas light to look at, everyone with a hot cup of cocoa in hand, and either some jazzy Christmas tunes or A Christmas Story playing in the background, well by golly, all of my Christmas wishes will have been granted.
If I haven't done a good job of changing your viewpoint, please try reading Bill McKibben's Hundred Dollar Holiday. It's a quick read and poses some really interesting ideas about how we ought to be spending our holidays.
To all of you Black Friday shoppers out there, please stay safe.
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