Just Say "No."

 It's the commercialization of the holidays. If you want to stop this, the answer is simple. Don't go.

It is unfortunate that we cannot do anything for the people being forced to work on Thanksgiving Day or 20 or more hour shifts.  We can, however, make their time an easy one.  Don't go.  I do realize that there are a few events that cause work.  TV, the Macy Thanksgiving Day Parade, and football, but Christmas shopping is not one of those traditions. Don't go!

If stores lose money they will not open next year.  They will realize that to us, the time with our family is not about buying stuff, for once.  Now I could tell you that you can go and protest or drive by those stores and shame the people who go there to shop, but I am not. Don't go.

So here's the deal.  On holidays, we don't shop.  We don't go to the movies.  We don't try to get that special something that will end up in a closet or a yard sale or on eBay.  We make it clear that if places want to open early that we won't show up before 6:00 am.  I say 6:00 am not because that's when I will go.  You might even want to go on Small Business Saturday and really invest in the community.

I have never gone out shopping on Black Friday to get that certain great deal.  And you know what? I've survived.  My wife has survived.  My kids have survived.  What is more, I've still found the occasional great deal.

If you want to sleep in on the day after Thanksgiving...Don't go!

What if there was a war and no one showed up? The war would end. What if there was a holiday-destroying, family time-interrupting, useless sale and no one showed up? That event would wither and die, and all the workers could go home.

So,

Don't Go!