Holiday commercialism crosses a new line this year as Black Friday sales encroach on Thanksgiving. For the first time, major retailers like Best Buy, Target, Macy’s, Kohl’s and Toys-R-Us will open their doors Thursday night, some as early as 9 p.m.
But Black Friday and Thanksgiving Thursday don’t mix well. Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful for what we have and spend hard-earned time with family and friends. Black Friday, on the other hand, is a chance to get as much as we can for our hard-earned dollars.
Is it better to maximize our holiday spending or to give thanks for what we already have?
Tempting as the sales may be, there’s good reason to put off that shopping until Friday and choose a day of thankfulness instead.
Scientists are finally catching on to what many religions have embraced for years: Gratitude is good for the body and the mind.
People who practiced gratitude — or counted their blessings — reported better health, were more optimistic, and made more progress toward achieving personal goals, reported Robert Emmons, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis. Over 10 weeks, people who wrote down five things they were grateful for every week felt 25 percent happier than those who wrote down five daily hassles.
Gratitude can certainly be harder to practice during tough economic times. Financial stresses will impact many Thanksgiving dinners this year — from how much we spend on turkeys to the types of blessings we count.
This year, we’re more likely than ever to be thankful for the basics as a record number of Americans — 16 percent — are in poverty, according to a new measure from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Meanwhile, nearly 50 million Americans lack health insurance, more than 1 million homes will likely be repossessed this year, and almost 14 million Americans are unemployed.
Even the prices for turkeys and cranberries are up this year, says the American Farm Bureau Federation, which predicts the average turkey dinner for 10 will cost 13 percent more than last year.
While it may seem like there aren’t many blessings to count, practicing gratitude can be a coping strategy during difficult times.
The ability to retain optimism is critical in our turbulent economy.
While counting blessings won’t change unemployment data, it can shift our focus away from our burdens, making us more successful in achieving goals, said Sonja Lyubormisky, author of “The How of Happiness.”
In fact, gratitude can actually have the greatest impact during crisis conditions, Emmons wrote in an e-mail. “In the face of demoralization, gratitude has the power to energize. In the face of brokenness, gratitude has the power to heal. In the face of despair, gratitude has the power to bring hope.”
Jessica Ford of Highlands Ranch understands the impact of gratitude. When Ford and her husband learned the baby she was carrying had no heartbeat, feelings of thankfulness for their three other children helped her cope with the loss.
“I have felt extreme and powerful gratitude for my family this Thanksgiving season, perhaps brought on by a loss we experienced. A loss that clearly revealed to me the blessings that I do have,” said Ford.
While no one “feels” grateful for a loss, we can choose to be grateful in spite of such events. “Gratitude provides a perspective by which we can view life in its entirety, and not be overwhelmed by temporary circumstances,” Emmons said.
Grateful people don’t deny or ignore the negative aspects of life. In fact, the continued awareness of problems in our lives is what differentiates gratitude from complacency that deters positive action.
This Thanksgiving, Americans are anything but complacent: One in three underemployed workers is looking for a different job, says the MetLife Study of Employee Benefits Trends.
Meanwhile, Occupy Wall Street demonstrators just marked the second month of their protest against corporate greed and income inequality.
Many Americans are also upset about the extension of Black Friday sales into Thanksgiving. Target employee Anthony Hardwick is petitioning Target to change its midnight opening back to 5 a.m. Friday. “A full holiday with family is not just for the elite of this nation,” Hardwick states. As of late last week, more than 150,000 people signed his petition at .
Separately, Best Buy worker Rick Melaragni launched a similar petition, asking his employer to push back its opening until 5 a.m Friday.
Here in the Denver region, Target will additionally open 29 stores from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thanksgiving Day for last-minute purchases, Bloomberg reports.
It’s up to consumers to decide whether these Thanksgiving sales will become a new holiday tradition. The easiest protest against greed this year may simply be to Occupy our own Thanksgiving tables.
Gathering around those tables may be more important than we realize. Making social connections with others is a fundamental human need, according to psychologist Abraham Maslow. Maslow introduced his hierarchy of needs in 1943, which suggests we fulfill basic survival and safety needs first — from food and water to shelter and employment.
Once these lower-level needs are met, humans focus on social needs for relationships, belonging and love, Maslow says.
If he’s correct, our needs for those social connections greatly outweigh our perceived needs for bargains.
Gratitude also can help counter destructive emotions like greed, envy and resentment, as grateful people place less value on material goods. In fact, teens who practiced gratitude had more positive attitudes, were less materialistic and got better grades in school, according to researchers. What better gift could we give our kids this holiday season?
Struggling Americans want better lives for themselves and their families. The best way to restore hope and achieve positive changes, studies suggest, is to first stop and be thankful for what we already have.
This Thanksgiving, a little gratitude may go a very long way.
Lisa Wirthman is a freelance writer living in Highlands Ranch. Reach her at lisawirthman@yahoo.
