Where did Thanksgiving go this year?

A couple of weeks ago I was walking through stores and everything was orange and black. There were bags of candy all over the place, and smiling pumpkins and witches and monsters and ... the list goes on.

Then a handful of kids came to my house and asked for candy. I gave them some.

The next day I got up and went to the store again. Suddenly, over night, the orange and black had all disappeared. What little candy was left was really cheap (but mostly it was candy not too many people like any way).

Now the stores were filled with red and green and fake fir trees and smiling fat guys in red suits.

Christmas was here. The first week of November.

What the heck ever happened to Thanksgiving? Did it die? Did it run away? Did it get kidnapped?

It has flat out disappeared.

I'm already seeing Christmas lights up at some of my neighbors' houses. Wreaths are on doors. Ribbons are tied around lamp posts.

And I've not even had any turkey yet.

I really noticed when my wife asked me to pick up some Thanksgiving paper towels. I couldn't find any at the stores. No brown and orange paper towels with little images of turkeys or pilgrim hats. But paper towels with red berries and green trees are readily available. She didn't believe me when I called her from the store. She thought I was just being lazy. Minutes later she called me back, while I was still in the store, and apologized; she had called three other stores and none of them had Thanksgiving paper towels. Or napkins. Or nose tissues. Or anything.

Our closest Walmart had one little display of napkins with turkeys on them and paper table cloths with pilgrims.

I know Christmas comes quick every year, but right now in 2009 it seems to have come sooner than ever.

Is it the economy? Are the retail stores in such a dump that management decided to start Christmas early in hopes it would bring out more shoppers?

Maybe all of us are glad to see this. Maybe the world is in such a bad shape that all of us are ready for the Christmas season to kick in.