Community Chat

[Moonchilde]

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@Trinity11 wrote:

Thanks for the topic. I have really learned a lot here today. It's good to read different opinions so eloquently stated.

Traditional thinking is all well and good but sometimes I need to re-think my position on something and reading here helped me to conclude we have no right to inflict our own beliefs on anyone else. If stores are open on Thanksgiving, so be it. If people don't want to celebrate Thanksgiving it isn't necessarily anyone's business but their own.  

A good wake up call that change isn't necessarily a bad thing and even someone stuck in tradition (like myself) can understand a different point of view....

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And, @Trinity11, it isn't necessarily that people "don't want to celebrate" Thanksgiving, but that they celebrate it as they choose - maybe on Wednesday, maybe with tacos, lol. It should, IMO, be more about the together happy feeling than about the rigid tradition of our grandparents' and parents' day as to day, time, menu and activities.

[Trinity11]

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@Moonchilde wrote:

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@Trinity11 wrote:

Thanks for the topic. I have really learned a lot here today. It's good to read different opinions so eloquently stated.

Traditional thinking is all well and good but sometimes I need to re-think my position on something and reading here helped me to conclude we have no right to inflict our own beliefs on anyone else. If stores are open on Thanksgiving, so be it. If people don't want to celebrate Thanksgiving it isn't necessarily anyone's business but their own.  

A good wake up call that change isn't necessarily a bad thing and even someone stuck in tradition (like myself) can understand a different point of view....

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And, @Trinity11, it isn't necessarily that people "don't want to celebrate" Thanksgiving, but that they celebrate it as they choose - maybe on Wednesday, maybe with tacos, lol. It should, IMO, be more about the together happy feeling than about the rigid tradition of our grandparents' and parents' day as to day, time, menu and activities.

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My daughter has her annual Thanksgiving dinner for friends and family the weekend before. People always tell me how they look forward to it every year. Then when Thanksgiving comes we make reservations and nobody has to cook. So I agree about choice... I guess in a way we make new traditions over the years.

[Trinity11]

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@chickenbutt wrote:

Hi Trinity!  I respect what you are saying about this.

The bottom line, and all that anybody should be doing, is that if one wants to shop they can shop.  If somebody else doesn't want to shop - by all means, don't shop (I don't - so what).

Oh, anyway, the actual bottom line is that the people will speak.  If enough people want to shop that it makes their bottom line better, the stores will be open.  If enough people who don't want to shop stay home, that it causes them to come out in the red, then they will stop being open.

It basically fixes itself, either way, and nobody is forced one way or the other.  

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Hi...makes sense to me. Choice is a good thing..

[Moonchilde]

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@Trinity11 wrote:

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@Moonchilde wrote:

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@Trinity11 wrote:

Thanks for the topic. I have really learned a lot here today. It's good to read different opinions so eloquently stated.

Traditional thinking is all well and good but sometimes I need to re-think my position on something and reading here helped me to conclude we have no right to inflict our own beliefs on anyone else. If stores are open on Thanksgiving, so be it. If people don't want to celebrate Thanksgiving it isn't necessarily anyone's business but their own.  

A good wake up call that change isn't necessarily a bad thing and even someone stuck in tradition (like myself) can understand a different point of view....

---

And, @Trinity11, it isn't necessarily that people "don't want to celebrate" Thanksgiving, but that they celebrate it as they choose - maybe on Wednesday, maybe with tacos, lol. It should, IMO, be more about the together happy feeling than about the rigid tradition of our grandparents' and parents' day as to day, time, menu and activities.

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My daughter has her annual Thanksgiving dinner for friends and family the weekend before. People always tell me how they look forward to it every year. Then when Thanksgiving comes we make reservations and nobody has to cook. So I agree about choice... I guess in a way we make new traditions over the years.

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Exactly, @Trinity11! Happy memories, everyone enjoying themselves, as you say, making new traditions. To me that's what a lot of life is about - mixing old with new.

[Moonchilde]

Just occurred to me - I don't think anyone has specifically mentioned restaurants and those who work in them.

Stores for shopping open on Thanksgiving=baaad.

Restaurants open, to serve those who are physically unable to cook, live alone, choose to dine out=good, presumably, because no one jumped on it as beyond the pale and non-traditional.

Chefs, servers, hosts, bussers, kitchen help - many if not most restaurants are open on Thanksgiving. It's a huge restaurant day. And totally okay. Why? "No one" "needs" to eat out at a restaurant on that particular day, right? Right!

Even when you work in a service industry and know it's part of the job, it's not that great as a mostly single mom of two to work *every* family holiday. My g-niece has done it for years. She may not have to work Xmas Day, but she pretty much works every other holiday - and in her managerial/event planner position she often works 6 days, sometimes 7 in a row, 10-12 hr days. She just.does.it.

[chickenbutt]

Many years ago we used to get together with a group (fam & friends) and go to this one restaurant that put on an amazing buffet, for Thanksgiving.  It wasn't the usual gagtastic buffet that comes to mind.  It was pretty amazing and kind of on the high end. 

I loved it and I loved not having to cook for hours (which now takes me days) and have messes galore to clean up!  

But - no leftovers.  That was the one letdown.

[Moonchilde]

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@chickenbutt wrote:

Many years ago we used to get together with a group (fam & friends) and go to this one restaurant that put on an amazing buffet, for Thanksgiving.  It wasn't the usual gagtastic buffet that comes to mind.  It was pretty amazing and kind of on the high end. 

I loved it and I loved not having to cook for hours (which now takes me days) and have messes galore to clean up!  

But - no leftovers.  That was the one letdown.

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For several years, I had Thanksgiving at, of all places, a well-known British pub. Salad, turkey, sage dressing, fresh veggies, mashed & gravy and dessert - you could get pumpkin pie, apple pie with custard sauce, or for a couple dollars more, any dessert on the regular menu. The price even included the gratuity. It was delicious. I used to order it all year round. I miss it 😫

[chickenbutt]

Sounds nice, Moonchilde!  

This buffet we used to visit for Thanksgiving was around all year (well, still is I believe) but on that one day it was about Thanksgiving - pretty much any food you could imagine and a zillion desserts.

But for Thanksgiving you actually had to reserve ahead.  There was still always a wait when you got there, but if you weren't already reserved you'd probably be waiting for hours.  It was very popular.  

[Moonchilde]

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@chickenbutt wrote:

Sounds nice, Moonchilde!  

This buffet we used to visit for Thanksgiving was around all year (well, still is I believe) but on that one day it was about Thanksgiving - pretty much any food you could imagine and a zillion desserts.

But for Thanksgiving you actually had to reserve ahead.  There was still always a wait when you got there, but if you weren't already reserved you'd probably be waiting for hours.  It was very popular.  

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This place wanted reservations on Thanksgiving too, though not really necessary before 3 pm. I used to go there on New Year's Day too and have a full British fry-up breakfast and a pint 😜

[Burnsite]

People can't celebrate holidays in lockstep.

Years ago when I lived in Manhattan, I was on my way to a Thanksgiving gathering at some friends, and passed a Burger King at Union Square, spiffy now, I hear, but back then kind of a depressing, rundown place. I knew it pretty well b/c it was where my dentist's office was.

So I pass the Burger King and see in the window a large family having burgers together and looking so joyous and bonded, each wearing a little paper crown furnished by BK.  I think they had more fun than anyone else in Manhattan that day.

I do most of my shopping online, and am glad if the retailing workers get their break--but I have known several that liked the holiday pay, too.   I don't see that there is one way to enjoy the holidays.  This is America, we are free to celebrate in our own way, even if it is by making some money.  Or going to Burger King and feasting in the front window.  It really was a treat to see such happy kids and two delighted parents.