Here we are in the midst of the longest holiday debacle of the year. This is the holiday I’ve come to think of as HallowThankMas, an orgy of shopping and eating that begins mid-October and tears a path through three months, stopping only to exchange orange and gold decorations for red and green, with just a touch of yellow and blue to include a nod for Hanukkah — the unfortunate Jewish observance that finds itself stuck in the middle of this mess.  

I’ve never been a fan of Halloween.  Even as a child, I found the ritual of selecting and wearing a costume less than attractive.  I enjoyed getting candy, but, it’s subsequent consumption was so bounded by rules and limitations that it took what spontaneity the customs afforded right out of the day.  As I grew older I tried to focus on the day that follows All Hallows Eve – All Saints Day – but, quietly reflecting on the great deeds of those who have gone before us just doesn’t sell Hersheys or encourage costumes dripping in fake blood, so All Saints Day remains the quiet observance of a few. 

Fortunately for the Presidential and other candidates, only one of the ‘big three’ encroached on their special day at the polls.  In fact, in my neck of the woods Halloween was a decided ‘non-event’ this year.  I did hear about a family that hoped to take their children trick or treating at the mall — yep, they do that here — but by early evening the mall had run out of candy.  They ended up buying candy and taking it home to dole out on a day by day basis. Those mall stores don’t miss a trick…and they ended up with a treat when parents of disappointed youngsters had to spend money on chocolates and gummy bears.

The rituals of Thanksgiving – a table laden with harvest foods, a large family gathered around one happy and thankful table are the ones that are closest to my heart.  I remember a few childhood Thanksgivings that had the quality of joy those images inspire. I also remember stilted conversations with relatives who rarely visited, long journeys to houses where I might be the only child in attendance, and the pressures the cook feels when everything has to be perfect and perfectly timed.  Still, it is hard to pause and enjoy the memories of good times, or even to start new memories, when all around us is now focused on the biggest shopping season of the year, Christmas. (Oh, and Hanukkah, too.)

Let’s hit rewind and pause before we leap beyond thanks and into the crazy days of the secular shopping spree attached to Christmas.  Let’s stop long enough to give thanks for the people who’ve sheltered us with love, and the people who challenged and inspired us, and our own personal saints.  Let’s give thanks for the food that graces our table every day of the year, in good times and bad, in small quantities or great. Let’s give thanks whether we’ve been spared the pain of this economic season or not.  Let us give thanks for the ability to stop, to remember, to reflect, to act.  And if we have any abundance to share, let us give it away with gratitude, that people in pain, in crisis, living their own hard times, might have ease because of something we did, and money we set aside to give them aide.

Let’s stop before the siren call to spend, spend, spend money on gifts reaches too deep into our psyches. Let’s pause long enough to give so that others can know a time of thanksgiving in their own lives.  Let’s breathe in thanksgiving, and share our gratitude with others.