Toon by Olivia Moreno
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year. Most people would think that it is my favorite because you get to see all your relatives and spend time with them. However, it is my favorite because my parents and I go to Foley, Alabama for Christmas shopping on Black Friday.
Thanksgiving has recently become an ignored holiday. People are so concerned with Christmas that no one really cares about eating as much turkey as possible. My parents and I used to leave for Foley after we went to visit my family. Then my entire mom’s side decided Thanksgiving wasn’t important, so now we all go to Foley.
My Thanksgiving involves dinner at Cracker Barrel and a visit to an outlet mall. People tell me that my family is crazy for not celebrating Thanksgiving, but nobody in my family cooks anymore so there is no point in staying home. Black Friday shopping has become a tradition.
When people think of Black Friday, they imagine people fighting for certain appliances, televisions, toys, gaming systems and pretty much anything worth the effort.
I have never fought with somebody for anything. Not all people are like that. The outlet mall is calm on Thursday night. Like most places, the outlet mall does open at 10 p.m. on Thursday night, but no one is running around or fighting over things.
Everyone has different traditions, and this happens to be my family’s. After we eat, we go back to the hotel and rest up before we head to the mall.
We head out to the mall around 9:45 p.m. and it becomes more crowded every year, but not to the point where it’s crazy and people are fighting. The latest we have stayed out is 3:30 a.m. Sleeping really isn’t something we do on Black Friday. We wake up around nine on Friday morning and we are back at the mall again.
In all honesty, you cannot beat the money you save on Black Friday. I can get a new wardrobe for less than $100. My mom uses these sales to buy Christmas presents for both sides of my family. Others may say that we are forgetting the most important part of Thanksgiving, but it has been like that for me for about five years.
Black Friday to my family is something we do together; it’s family bonding. We use this time to just enjoy each other’s company and walk around the mall.
Enjoying time together as a family is what our Thanksgiving and Black Friday are about. We do not have to be around a table feasting upon great food; just being together is something to be thankful for.