By Dan Stevens
6:00AM GMT 02 Dec 2012
"The Holidays” are here again, kicked off in America in spectacular style by the celebration of Thanksgiving. Unsurprisingly, this is heralded here in the most epic, all-American way in the shape of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Lined by three million people, a two-and-a-half mile route through midtown Manhattan sees floats of every shape and size boasting Broadway shows and brass marching bands, punctuated by prodigious pneumatic manifestations of the household brands and characters that have fed the minds and stomachs of this nation’s children (and many of its adults) over the decades. Towering Smurfs are flanked by a gargantuan Pillsbury Doughboy, a titanic jug of Kool-Aid and a monumental Ronald McDonald, looming down on the crowds with a terrifyingly reassuring “thumbs up”. These are also brands that have fed the nation’s economy – indeed the giving of thanks for the “harvest” has increasingly metaphorical, commercial connotations. One can’t help but appreciate the metaphor as these giant symbols pass by; dominating view yet all hot air, kept in place only by a network of ropes held by a large, exhausted workforce.
Thanksgiving is closely followed by a grotesque, modern iteration of a “festival”. For the past decade “Black Friday” has marked the start of the Christmas shopping season, with stores opening especially early with supposedly massive (illusory) discounts to lure the hordes, with aggressive queues forming almost before Thursday’s turkey has even been battered. Two people were shot in Florida in a fight over a parking space and a friend told me, with curious pride, that in New Jersey his mother “had to punch two people to defend her shopping cart”.
(Blog owner Karen's personal observation: No offense to Dan Stevens, but, to be fair, two people are always shot in Florida over a parking space. We Floridians certainly don't need 'Black Friday' for that. sheesh. Damn, Bubba, someone just shot me in the foot.)
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