Back in October — irritated by my first sighting of Christmas merchandise, weeks before Halloween even(!) — I was reminded of a Sunday talk I heard at my Unity church in San Francisco, way back in the early 1990’s.
The minister talked about how much she appreciated the fact that Nordstrom made a point of waiting until after Thanksgiving to put up their store Christmas tree and other decorations. As she pointed out, Thanksgiving (gratitude) comes before Christmas (receiving).
The importance of her insight has stayed with me over the decades: forgetting or belittling the gratitude part and becoming overly focused on the receiving (or getting) part is a recipe for disaster — for us as individuals and also as a society.
We see it happening a little bit more every year, as the Christmas decorations go up earlier and earlier in order to encourage people to buy more, buy sooner, buy faster! Get, get, get! But what about first slowing down and remembering to give thanks for what you’ve already got?
I’m not big on shopping; in fact, I’m pretty sure the last time I was in a Nordstrom was to play a gig back in my days as a freelance flutist. But if I were to need to shop in a department store, I would want to give Nordstrom my business, because I so very much appreciate that they’re still sticking to their guns all these years later!
I googled it because I was curious and discovered that in its more than 100-year history, Nordstrom has never decorated before Thanksgiving. And the store has received widespread support on social media about this, with consumers praising Nordstrom for fighting the “Christmas creep.”
Now that’s something I can heartily endorse!