What happened to Thanksgiving? Did I miss it? Are we celebrating it this year? My parents invited me to their house for dinner on Thursday so they must know something but I’m really confused.

Why am I so confused? To answer that question, let me take you back to November 1st – the day after Halloween. I go to my local big box retailer store and see them taking down the Halloween displays and replacing them with Christmas displays. Same thing happened at the local mall. Same at the electronics store. So I found myself wondering “what happened to Thanksgiving?”

Yes – I know the answer – Christmas is the biggest selling season of the year and merchants like to get a jump on that selling season. But how much of a jump do they need to take? Do they realize they are sacrificing Thanksgiving which last I checked was a pretty big national holiday?

I can’t help but envision how the ocean can slowly erode a beach until the beach disappears. That’s what seems to be happening with Christmas as the selling season continues to kick off earlier and earlier. At this pace, some day I’ll walk into a store and see them taking down their Christmas displays and replacing them with…Christmas displays.

The point I’m trying to make is that we have many wonderful events to celebrate throughout the year and we shouldn’t sacrifice them in the spirit of the big holiday payoff. Likewise from a marketing perspective, there are selling opportunities beyond Christmas. If we put all our eggs (someday it may be all our Easter eggs) in one basket, we’re not just missing out on celebrating great holidays but we’re also missing on other great selling opportunities.

Filed under: Latest Postings on November 21st, 2007