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Hudson Cooper
Posted 11/11/22

Now that Halloween is behind us and our stash of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are safely stowed away, we await the triple threat of the holiday season. In rapid order we zip through Thanksgiving, …

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Random Thoughts

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Now that Halloween is behind us and our stash of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are safely stowed away, we await the triple threat of the holiday season. In rapid order we zip through Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve.  They are the times we share with family, friends and every customer-hungry online or brick and mortar store. 

In truth, the big kahuna of holidays that businesses rely on to “make their year” is Christmas. Thanksgiving brings revenue mainly to food stores and airlines.  Airports will be packed with anxious passengers who stare at the departure/arrival screen hoping that their flight will not be delayed or cancelled. Any change in their travel plans might cause the frozen stuffing that is packed into their overhead compartment bag to spoil.

Other than food and perhaps the need for a decorative flower arrangement from a florist, businesses have yet to figure out how to monetize Thanksgiving.  Not many people are “gobbling” up Hallmark “Happy Thanksgiving” cards to send. Unlike Halloween where neighbors compete trying to have the best ghoulish skeletons hanging from their trees in the front yard, no such frenzy happens around Thanksgiving. 

Halloween is also a time where people of all ages dress up in costumes. Years ago, mom would pin a bath towel on her son and send “Superman” out to go trick or treating. Girls became witches with a pointy hat and a broom. Those simple costume days are over. Now, money is spent on elaborate costumes adding a lot of income to companies like Marvel and DC Comics that license their images. There is so much money to be made by selling costumes and Halloween items that previously abandoned stores like Blockbuster and Toys R Us open for a few weeks as a popup Halloween emporium.

New Year’s Eve has some effect on our economy. Liquor sales spike as people around the country celebrate the coming year. Sequined hats and eyeglasses made to look like 2023 will be popular items for party goers and even for those who stay home to watch Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve telecast. For those millennials unfamiliar with Dick Clark, back in the good old days, known to historians as the pre-AOL era, Dick Clark hosted a very popular weekly television show called “American Bandstand.” Various musical groups were booked to perform hits from their albums while his studio audience danced. Dick Clark began hosting his New Year’s Rockin’ Eve show in 1975 and continued for 35 years. As an homage to him, the yearly program still uses his name.

Which leaves us to discuss Christmas, the holiday with the biggest impact on our economy. If you don’t believe me, go to any local store. Barely a day after the rotted carved pumpkins were thrown out, stores leaped over the concept of Thanksgiving and piled their shelves with everything for Christmas. Walmart quickly replaced most of their garden department with artificial Christmas trees, aisles of ornaments and toys.  Marshalls, seemingly overnight, transitioned to Christmas displaying racks of red and white clothing and aisles of knickknacks all with a Christmas theme. Even the county’s dollar stores stocked their shelves with an avalanche of Christmassy items. As a public service to my readers, most of those stores now charge $1.25 per item. Maybe they should change their name to “Buck ‘N’ a Quarter Store.”

When the last leftover turkey leg is consumed after Thanksgiving it will be time for homes to break out the outdoor expensive Christmas lights and displays. The average person spends about one thousand dollars for gifts, decorations, food and travelling for Christmas. Elaborate lighting displays cheer up the neighborhood and electric companies.

It becomes a lighting festival, not to be confused with our Jewish friends who celebrate Chanukkah with a festival of lights by lighting a menorah. A simple light display also happens for Kwanza. Those that celebrate, place seven candles in their Kinara.

So, if you make it through the holiday season without getting diabetes from eating all the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups you pilfered from your kids trick or treat bag, ptomaine poisoning from spoiled turkey stuffing and/or a three-day hangover from a rockin’ New Years Eve...relax. You will have a few months before preparing for Valentine’s Day!

Hudson Cooper is a resident of Sullivan County, a writer, comedian and actor.

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