American Thanksgiving Rocks!

This is a reposting, but I believe still timely:

Canada celebrates Thanksgiving too. Bet you didn’t know that. If you were aware of this fact, did you know it is not celebrated on the same day? Every year when this week in November rolls around I grow jealous and I’ll tell you why:

Time Off

Canadian Thanksgiving is always the second Monday in October, which results in a three day weekend. US Thanksgiving is the last Thursday in November, which usually results in a four day weekend; four and a half if folks leave early on Wednesday, five if you have balls and just blow off work entirely on Wednesday. In fact, since it is the biggest travel time of the year, most people can get away with going AWOL on Wednesday by shrugging and saying in an exasperated voice “You know… Thanksgiving…”

Football

This on is a toss up. Canadian Thanksgiving features two CFL games while American Thanksgiving has three NFL games. However one of those NFL games is always the Detroit Lions, so it shouldn’t really count.

Time of Year

Canadian Thanksgiving is still very early in autumn. We have not yet had the worst of the crummy fall weather. A later holiday would give people more to look forward to while slogging out the October freezing rains and shortening days. Plus a late November holiday seems like a perfect interlude before a month of Christmas insanity. Which leads me to:

Proximity to Christmas

Christmas in Canada is the Big Event. Expectations are you must spend time (and we are talking quality time) with every family member: his, hers, yours, mine & ours. American Thanksgiving is the perfect pressure release valve for Christmas. Two ‘family’ related events within a month can spread out the guilt and disappointment that you spent one holiday with Dad and his new wife instead of Mom, her cats and the sad neighbour who isn’t really her boyfriend but always seems to be hanging around.

Happy Thanksgiving to all the friends of Dogs & Jeans who will be eating instead of blogging today.