Some of us have been going beyond simply avoiding the frenzied mobs at the mall the day after Thanksgiving, for a number of years. We intentionally avoid any purchase on that day. This “Black Friday” full of obligatory consumption, angry parking, elbows, whining kids and glazed countenances is not one of the better parts of the American Experience. Although the stampedes and mini-riots over the latest plastic “hot item” make for amusing news.
Join us for the peaceful, easy feeling of Buy Nothing Day [1].
This Thanksgiving weekend, take the day you get off, off. Don’t join and exacerbate the mob. If you must buy those just-the-thing-I-need-how-nice items, do it another day. Listen to Tom Lehrer’s Christmas Carol [2] as an antidote for all the inescapable seasonal music. Rent some classic videos on Wednesday, and watch them with the family on Friday. Play football in the yard or chess by the fire. Write holiday greetings to old friends. Bake from scratch! Make memories, not debts.
This is not a specific plea for easing up on consumption, but rather about breaking with the media-inspired feeding frenzy as a holiday kick-off.
This post inspired by Erich’s recent posts about Commercialism [3] and Consumerism [4].
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