Thanksgiving is over and “Black Friday” has begun. All though, black Friday deals already started on Wednesday.

Where did the term Black Friday come from?
Wondering about this question, I did a little research and found out the black Friday (as it was officially called) started in 1924 by Macy’s on the Friday after Thanksgiving. It marked the time of year when if the store was running short in profit (in the red) would make up for it during the Christmas shopping season. Macy’s would mark down some prices on the most wanted items to draw shoppers into the store to buy. Other stores caught on quickly and began to do the same.

Today, retailers can’t wait to start getting their fingers green with cash, so some of them start the sales before Thanksgiving and run them for a week. Years ago I remember some retailers opening up at 4 am, then it was midnight now it starts on Wednesday.

I don’t blame the retailers for wanting to make a profit, but we have gotten to the point where Thanksgiving is an afterthought, just a planning day on searching newspaper ads and flyers to find out which store is going to have the best deals for what ever you are looking for.

As I think back to the days of my childhood, I remember the times my family would have Thanksgiving at home. Mom would cook the turkey, and it would be the one day I could look forward to and be excited about, being with my father all day. I know my father loved me, but we were never close. My dad, rarely spent any quality time with me due to reasons I won’t go into. So for me Thanksgiving meant that I was able to spend time with pop.

The American culture over the years, like it has done with every holiday, has turned a day to spend quality time with family, into a holiday of “me first-I want it now” attitude of self-indulgence.

I hope that Thanksgiving for you was as memorable for you as it was with my family and grand daughters. Our family tries to forget about all the deals and sales and focus in on each other, sitting around playing card games watching the grand daughters play and just having fun laughing with each other and most of all remembering why we have this day of Thanksgiving.

As we move now into the Christmas season, I pray that each one of you will remember Christ first, remembering that this is when God sent His son to earth to save us from eternal death.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.