Must We Shop on Thanksgiving?

Forget the Grinch, or Scrooge: This year's holiday-spoiling honors go to Sears, writes Francine Kiefer. Last year the title went to Kmart, which kept its doors open all day long on Thanksgiving. Sears will join it this year, tempting not-yet-stuffed shoppers from 7am until noon—and it's "enough to turn my gravy lumpy." It's no big surprise why this is happening, Kiefer writes for the Christian Science Monitor: Retailers are nervous about their bottom line, and weary Americans are on the hunt for the best deal. But "must America always put shopping first?"

We already do so on Veterans Day, Memorial Day, and Presidents Day, and while Thanksgiving is about pumpkin pie and overeating ... but isn't it about gratitude? "Family, friends, and counting blessings add up to a sacredness that’s worth preserving for one day out of 365. Not a half day. Not squeezing it in between shopping or working, but a full day." Kiefer pushes other states to follow the lead of places like Massachusetts and Connecticut, which bar retailers from opening on the fourth Thursday of November. "If retailers keep nibbling on Thanksgiving, there will be nothing left but the bones of this day's meaning. The country will be celebrating 50% off, instead of acknowledging the bounty it already has." (More Thanksgiving stories.)