It was the next day after Halloween when Granddaughter Adelaide excitedly exclaimed, “Christmas is almost here!” In her 11-year-old mind the matter was settled, no argument.
I offered one anyway. “It’s not even Thanksgiving,” I said in my sagacious Grandpa voice. Shouldn’t we wait until that holiday is over?” But she was not to be convinced nor deterred. In her head, the certainty of Christmas superiority would sustain her sugarplum visions of boxes being secretly slipped into the house, then wrapped, then gloriously unwrapped on Christmas morn. It was her way to keep the dream of a future material paradise that would sustain her through the plodding weeks to come.
I thought about our post-Halloween conversation last Monday, the day after the four-day weekend family Thanksgiving celebration. That weary morning my eyes honed in on a column titled, “Of Course, Thanksgiving is the Best Holiday” written by Scott Lincicome for his online newsletter “Capitolism.” Reading through the column, I was not surprised the author, being the vice-president of General Economics and Trade at the Cato Institute as well as a visiting lecturer at Duke University Law School, used statistics, graphs and charts to back up his rather self-confident — and more than a little tongue-in-cheek — claim. He ranks the major holidays using criteria.
The author argues first that the very date of Thanksgiving gives it an edge. Thanksgiving always starts on a Thursday (really, Wednesday evening) and continues through Sunday, making it the only Major U.S. holiday to always start a four-day weekend. That is a plus for workers.
Holiday food is an important measure, of course. Thanksgiving food takes time to prepare, but the process is no small part of the festivities. The “olfactory extravaganza” and the sneaked taste tests throughout the sometimes hours-long food preparation process give Thanksgiving additional points in the competition. He includes a chart showing the relative costs of Thanksgiving food and concludes a 2023 dinner costs 5.5% of the median American worker’s weekly earnings — the second-lowest percentage ever. It was 5.3% in 2019.
Lincicome suggests the themes of a holiday should be included in the ranking. Thanksgiving’s theme of “celebrat(ing) our nation’s earliest days, share(ing) a great meal, and give(ing) thanks for what we have” gives it extra points. Other pluses are that there are no expectations of gifts, Thanksgiving-Eve parties, or holiday decorations aside from an occasional cornucopia or representation of Pilgrims and Native Americans feasting together.
To the author, one clear advantage Thanksgiving has over the Christmas holiday is the lack of stress. He includes a poll with the question: “Are there ever any arguments about politics at your Thanksgiving celebration?” Of all U.S. adult citizens 78% answered, “no.” The often over-done Christmas decorations, the pressures of gift-shopping and giving, the worry whether the gifts are liked by the giftees, and the eventual credit card bills make Thanksgiving a clear winner.
The other categories used in The Definitive American Holiday Rankings include sports, movies, music and “Creepmas” which is defined as the mad rush to start Christmas earlier every year. Of the 10 holidays ranked, Thanksgiving was the clear winner. Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Easter and Independence Day all scored above Christmas. Of course, these rankings could and should be debated.
At least part of the debate should include the bias of the pollster. Lincicome is a well-educated probably very hard-working adult, so his arguments include things like stressing over gift-giving and the pleasures of days off work.
I am sure Adelaide would have different criteria for comparing Thanksgiving with Christmas, and it wouldn’t necessarily include worry about credit card bills since she’s 11. I remember when I was 11. Back then Christmas was, to me, the ultimate holiday. Although I loved the food and the get-togethers with my cousins, Thanksgiving was, to me, essentially the same as it is for Adelaide: just a bump in the road to Christmas.
Norman Knight, a retired Clark-Pleasant Middle School teacher, writes this weekly column for the Daily Journal. Send comments to [email protected].
