This is NOT what the holidays are all about

Got back from my after-TGiving shopping around 11 or so today (was at the new mall at 7). Did some decorating around the house for Christmas, and then took a nice nap and read a little.

Yesterday during Thanksgiving lunch, my sisters and mom and I were all talking about how we on one hand were looking fwd to the deals you get the day after Thanksgiving at the stores, but on the other hand were dreading the crowds and the madness. I was fortunate today in that I didn’t have too much of a problem with crowds – except at Sears, and at that point I had decided that that was my last stop of the morning before I got out of the Christmas spirit really quick thanks to the pushing and shoving and general rudeness of some people out to get the ‘deal of the century’ that so many stores promise them.

I just checked out Drudge’s site and was appalled at the some pictures he had up of after-Thanksgiving shoppers, one picture was of two people apparently FIGHTING over a sale item, and one of them was a 73 year-old woman who had apparently either been pushed down or fell as soon as the doors opened at one store (make sure to check out the disturbing photo).

I have never been one of those who will wait for a store to open the day after Thanksgiving, and I generally don’t go to the ones that offer the “deal of the century” on a DVD player, or other normally semi-to-high dollar items because if you look at the fine print in the sales papers, they are usually limited to having 75 *per store* – which is nuts, because you oftentimes see lines around stores before they even open that have way more than 75 people. It’s just too chaotic, and people end up getting hurt – just as they did today. I’m simply amazed that there are people out there who think getting that super duper deal is worth trampling a 73-year old woman to get to, or worth wrestling their fellow shoppers to the ground for.

These incidents, thankfully, are the exception to the rule but are still noteworthy nevertheless: people should never forget the reason for the season (more here) in their haste to get the deal of a lifetime. Life will go on if you don’t manage to get that DVD player in time. If you can, great, but if not, it’s much better to leave the store without that $20 DVD player in hand, rather than leaving dignity at the door once by walking over people to obtain it in the first place.