“This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper.”–T.S. Eliot

I have worked retail the past eight years; over this period, I have noticed a surprising decline. It’s a decline that I never would have noticed where it not for and epiphany I had at work today. A customer was wandering around in the Christmas aisle I was stocking. Naturally, I asked if they need help finding anything. They inquired where our Thanksgiving stuff was. I answered we only had a single end cap at A9; she thanked me and scurried in that direction. I turned around and stepped back, overwhelmed by the fifteen aisles of Christmas in front of me. Then I came to a shocking realization.

We had only one END CAP of Thanksgiving–on November 10…at Target.

And it made me ponder, when did Thanksgiving become a minor holiday?

I went into the backroom and discovered that we already had five pallets dedicated to Black Friday merchandise. Really? That’s not even technically a holiday, but we had 8x’s the merchandise for it than Thanksgiving. We already had fifteen aisles of Christmas set by November 7! I began to think back at the trend I had unknowingly witnessed over my last eight years in retail. Each year, Christmas was set earlier, Black Friday sales opened sooner, and Thanksgiving merchandise, and hype, diminished.

No wonder Americans are considered ungrateful and greedy! Thanksgiving becomes an afterthought in the commercialism of Halloween, Black Friday, and Christmas.  What’s with having a “holiday” celebrating greed and materialism the day after (and usually starting the day of anymore) an official holiday celebrating contentment and gratitude?

It has been subtle, and years in the making. It isn’t like Congress has removed it as an official holiday, and it isn’t as though people have stopped holding meals or elementary school plays, but Thanksgiving is waning in importance and meaning. Much like Eliot’s poem, “The Hollow Men”, Thanksgiving seems to be dying, not with a sudden, extravagant exit, but gradually–unnoticed–not with a bang, but a whimper.