"Annoyed" by the holidays?

How can someone be annoyed by the holidays?

Yet, here is sit but three weeks before the "official"(?) beginning of the holiday season and I'm already frustrated.  No, not because I haven't started my Christmas shopping yet or haven't even decided where we are going for Thanksgiving or that I will once again have to deal with a certain amount of "guilt" for not sending out Christmas cards to all those wonderful people who send some to us.

I am annoyed because of the increasingly commercialization of the whole holiday season!  It only seems to get worse every year.  I think I need to start to keep  track of when I see the first Christmas decorations up in the stores which seem to arrive in early October nowadays, but then it would only increase my own frustration.

This year, however, my frustration has hit a new high in that a number of large retail stores have decided to move their black Friday sales into Thursday, on Thanksgiving day itself.  While on the one hand, it really doesn't affect me as I don't get all hyped up by even the Friday frenzy, I soon realized that it does affect a great number of people.  Think of all those employees who are now pulled from their dinner tables to work. 

What does this say about our country's values which reveal themselves to be more about the dollar than the family?
What does this say about the true meaning of these holy-days: from the giving of thanks to the giving of a Child?

My initial response to this new low in the commercialization of the holidays is to shrug my shoulders, thinking that it is out of my control to do anything.  Besides, once again, I don't do all that much shopping anyway. 

Yet, can I really sit by and do nothing?  Sure, in the greater scheme of things - this isn't a huge deal.  But, change is not even possible if no one does anything about it.  So, rather than just staying annoyed by the whole thing,  I have started a petition on www.change.org (look for Major Retail Stores; Remain closed on Thanksgiving Day).

What do you think?  Will you sign my petition?  Will you refrain from shopping on Thanksgiving?