Thanksgiving comes first

Several Americans of my acquaintance (well, two - here and here) are campaigning against commercial organisations stocking their outlets with Christmas goods even before Hallowe'en and are hoping to persuade people in general that the time to start preparing for Christmas is after Thanksgiving Day. I'm 99% sure I'm right when I say that Thanksgiving is the last Thursday in November, ie about four weeks before Christmas. It seems to me that is about the right time for preparation, although I can also understand that there are undoubtedly people on low incomes who, unable to actually put money aside without breaking into the piggy-bank early, want to start buying dribs and drabs while they still have some cash. All the same, I wish my American friends the best of luck with their campaign: the start of Advent would seem to be a most suitable time to start preparing for Christmas.

Of course, we Brits are less fortunate than our ex-colonial cousins in that we have no equivalent of the Thanksgiving holiday. Harvest festival is about the nearest we get to it, and that is a wishy-washy, half-hearted affair involving children taking apples or tins of baked beans and the like to school to be collected up at assembly and, possibly, distributed to elderly people living near the school. The churches don't do much better, if as well. No, the nearest holiday we have before Christmas is the August bank holiday on the last Monday of that month.

I did try joining in the "Thanksgiving comes first" movement with a British slant on it. I prepared a pic which appeared at the top of this blog yesterday saying "Remembrance Day comes first" but I removed it this morning as I decided it was in questionable taste.

So, my American friends, I think you will just have to get by without us Brits. But I do wish we could do something to stop Christmas puddings appearing in the shops in August. Come to that, could they leave off selling hot cross buns until after New Year?