Farmers Weekly Review

Nick Reiher

Up until about age 8, Christmas was my favorite holiday. It’s also my birthday, and during those particular years, and in the most recent ones, I gladly receive presents for each event.
The waiting was agony in the early days, especially after getting the revered Sears Christmas catalog in the mail. Before I could read, I knew how to mark pages, taking in the wonderful – although likely toxic – aroma of the deeply hued color ads.
But first, there was Halloween and those wonderfully toxic boxed costume sets, which also had their own scent, especially after trying on the mask a few times.
The Sisters at St. John Bosco reminded us the next day was All Souls Day, when we remember loved ones who have passed. By that time, my Grampa Joe Fiorini had passed away close to Thanksgiving one year. My Aunt Lidia died at 30, a few years before I was born.
So, between the Halloween candy and the Christmas gifts, there was Thanksgiving to look forward to. We made pilgrim hats and Indian headdresses out of paper shopping sacks (Were there any other kind in those days?)
We were told the story of the First Thanksgiving, as many generations before us were. Later, I would learn they didn’t have a couple roast Butterballs and dressing. Oh, well, I was.
Mom made a fantastic turkey with a wonderful dressing, except the one year she made chestnut dressing. Plugged me up for two weeks.
Each year, Dad would say, “Best dressing you ever made.” Now, I tell Tammy that, too. And it’s the truth.
And we’d use some of that leftover dressing as a layer for The Sandwich, along with turkey, jellied cranberry and mayonnaise.
Now, I know it has become a popular – and much-welcomed – addition to catering menus and at some restaurants. All I can tell you is, the Reihers were doing it at least 50 years ago. Dr. Jillian and I still do.
As I aged into junior high, high school and college, the four-day break from school was a welcome respite and a time of eating, playing football, eating more, more football. Bathroom. More football. And eating.
I don’t recall there being much interest in frenzied Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving. As late as the mid-1980s, people seemed content to wait until a few days after to head to the malls.
Like my great friend Mary Jane and I did. Every Monday after Thanksgiving, we’d meet at Orland Park Mall. We’d start early and blow through that place like a derecho, stopping only for a sandwich and some fromage potage at the German restaurant in the mall.
We had a blast.
For years, it has been a joke as to how commercialized Christmas has become, even making it the theme for 1965’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
And for a good, long while, the Thanksgiving get-togethers were secondary to plotting out shopping strategies for the day after, and finally, the day of.
Thankfully, pun intended, retailers are pulling back on Thanksgiving Day specials, allowing us to focus on food, family and football, not necessarily in that order.
Instead, though, they have taken up my childhood strategy of planning Christmas even before Halloween, with carols part of the merchandiser’s TV and radio jingles. They went full-throttle the day after Halloween this year.
And Thanksgiving? The only thing I heard is that turkeys are going to be more expensive this year due to avian flu and myriad other market factors. Already stressful.
Here’s a thought: How about taking a day or two or three and being thankful for what we have; not what we want?
Maybe you do that already every day. In the morning and/or at night.
I’m not going to sprinkle you with holy water and ashes, which would leave you with a pasty complexion. But seriously, especially these days. Chillax. And really try to focus on all the good in your life. And do you really need that much more in your life to be truly thankful?
How many people are anxious and depressed this time of year, in part, because of the pressures they put on themselves?
Chillax. Enjoy what you have. Help a brother or sister who has less than you do.
Holidays can be fun, if we let them.