By: Gabby Brancato
It’s that time of the year again. Yes, it’s the holiday season. Start getting out your holiday trees, mistletoe, decorations and holiday music. It’s that time when children write up lists of items they want and send them to “Santa” in the “North Pole” so that “elves” can make their gifts and return them safely under their trees to light up the faces of many young ones on Christmas Day. “Santa” tends to do much of his “building” on Black Friday.
Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving where people wait in outrageously long lines in extremely cold weather for the sake of saving a few dollars. Some even start Thanksgiving evening. We always have our Thanksgiving traditions; we have a rather large meal with our families, spend time with the ones we love, and say how thankful and grateful we are for everything we have. Why, then, are we spending so much time and money wanting and waiting to buy the next best thing?
I did not participate in the fun festivities this year because I had a bad cold (this made me terribly sad), but, in all seriousness, I don’t believe I would even be able to keep up with the pace of Black Friday. Going from one place to another to another to another and so on just doesn’t seem like an appealing thing to do at two a.m. I don’t think I would be able to deal with hundreds of sleepless, irritable people fighting over blenders or televisions. It may be enough to make me crazed. I prefer to sleep; it’s something I really like to do, like many other people my age. Even though I did not get much sleep (because of my cold) I still felt better knowing that I was home and was warm in my own bed. Cold weather is something I really dislike. It chills me to the bone. I’m also not very patient and waiting just isn’t my thing.
My parents and some other family members spend Thanksgiving evening creating their Black Friday strategy, searching for the best deals, and figuring up a map of places to go. This year they left at 10 pm and I didn’t see them again until 11 am when they woke up from a short nap and went back out to finish up some shopping. So many people contradict what they say they believe on Thanksgiving that maybe, “Everything they could ever have is sitting around the table” and then rush out to go shopping for gifts. I, myself, am more of a Cyber Monday girl. Why sacrifice sleep and spend the night in a daze when you can do the same shopping in the comfort of your own home, in your pajamas three days later?