Call me Grumpypants.

I’m annoyed this week.  Lots of things annoyed me this week. Here’s just one.

Black Friday

Did you know that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are now international holidays? I wrote last year about Israeli ads touting sales for Black Friday.  This year, I saw that there were Black Friday sales in Germany and Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales on my Korean beauty products websites.

Not an endorsement, just a good image of Black Friday in Hebrew

Cyber Monday sale is still on!

Now to be fair, Israel, Germany, and Korea don’t celebrate in the traditional way by rolling out of bed at 3am to beat down the doors of stores in order to buy the latest, most popular doohickey.  Moreover, they don’t even have the preliminary turkey feast to prepare for the onslaught.  It’s just a regular Friday and Monday (sales extended through the week!) to sell stuff.

2 images I found on the internet, above Germany and below from India

What I wish had been exported from the US was the idea that there is a holiday to celebrate gratitude. But unfortunately, that idea exists in a fantasy world with unicorns and Care Bears.

In the real world, Thanksgiving – also known as Turkey Day – is squeezed in between the sugar-fueled, scary/sexy cosplay festival of begging your neighbors for handouts and the colorful, tree-killing, shopping extravaganza pushing everyone deeper into debt and destroying any chance of clutter-clearing.

Image from my personal copy of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
It came without packages, boxes or bags! …
Maybe Christmas … doesn’t come from a store.

I’m glad Dr. Seuss isn’t around to see this. He would be so disappointed in us.

Or the video, if you prefer.