Holiday Season

I know this is a little late seeing as how Thanksgiving was a week ago but I saw how many people have been talking about Black Friday and thought I would share some of my thoughts as well.  I thought about this a lot over break as it is becoming more and more of a controversial issue.  Black Friday used to be a huge sale day when large department stores would lower their prices.  However, throughout the years the stores have been opening up earlier and earlier getting into Thanksgiving Day.  Some stores were even open all day on Thanksgiving.  So many people complain about how this time spent shopping on Thanksgiving Day should be time spent with your families yet so many people still go out shopping the earlier and earlier they make the sales.  All of these sales have really been making the holiday season more of a commercialized, consumerist and materialistic season.  Even commercials for the Christmas season come out earlier and earlier every year not even focusing on black friday but the season in general and black friday just starts it off.  I just think that all of this advertising for Christmas especially so early on is making people forget about what its really about.  Everyone gets so wrapped up in the materialistic objects that they forget to be thankful for what they already have.  I never really knew anything about what black friday was when I was younger because my family never went shopping during then or talked about it.  Then again ten years ago stores weren’t opening at midnight.  When I was in high school I went shopping with my friends one year when the stores opened up at 4am.  Then my mom, my sister and I started going every year not exactly for the shopping but just to see all the people.  I mean of course we shopped too but we weren't going crazy trampling over people for a deal and we just thought how crazy some people acted just to save a few bucks.  This was actually the first year that we didn't go out shopping at all and I was really able to value the time spent with my family instead.  This got me wondering why black friday is even a thing.  A huge sale to kick off the holiday season is possibly a good idea but the fact that its getting into our Thanksgiving Day is not okay.  Many people who work at these stores can’t enjoy their holiday with their family because they are spending it working.  I really don't think that there is a benefit of black friday.  I mean is it really worth it? Do people really save that much money on items that they can get on another sale on a different day.  I think that everyone would be fine if black friday didn't exist.  Many black friday sales are not only starting earlier but also extending past black friday so its not worth starting the sales on Thanksgiving.