Thanksgiving Needs Better Marketing

Most kids like to go to Disney World, Six Flags, Water world, or possibly Sea World for entertainment. Our kids, however, are a little different. They like to visit the local neighborhood Lowe's.
Last Saturday as it became apparent that I was not going to be able to continue to sit in front of the television and watch endless hours of Whatever U. vs Whatever U. football game was on, we had to do something. The kids were playing their favorite game of "Let's throw random things down the stairs," and it was just time to go.....somewhere.

We had already decided to take the family out to dinner, but since it was only 3:30, Suzanne my beautiful wife, and I knew that sitting in a restaurant that long with three kids is just not a good idea.

Here's a random question: Parents, have you ever just put your kids in the car, backed out of the driveway, and then decided where you were going to go? Well, we did just that.
I knew that I needed a couple of things from Lowe's for the yard, so guess what? Off to Lowe's we went.

Once inside, we discovered a magical, virtual winter wonderland. The entire front section of the store were made of Snowmen, elves, and reindeer. They even had Santa floating in an inflatable helicopter. Apparently, times are good enough at the North Pole that he could upgrade his mode of transportation.
Why, they have even captured the site of our saviors birth, in an inflatable. Somehow, I never before imagined Jesus with an air inlet attached to his big toe, but hey, this is marketing.

That however, was not the show stopper for the Millender family. The best of all, were the giant inflatable M&M's that were next to it. And then I remembered the Bible verse of "from out of the West came the three wise men, bearing gifts of Gold, Frankensense, and peanut M&M's."

In the midst of this Christmas extravaganza and off to the side, were the two left over Halloween decorations. One life size scary witch, and one giant ghost. As I looked closer, I could swear the old witch had a tear in her eye. Although it was only the first week in October, it was apparent that her 15 minutes of fame were up, but she just kept hanging on. Much like Kate Gosselin, but with a better hair style.

Where were the Thanksgiving decorations you ask? Do you really have to ask? Somehow, inflatable snowglobes with Pilgrims inside just never really took off. I've never heard any Thankgiving carols, or have seen a movie where Jimmy Stewart is running down the street thanking the world for his turkey. There are no cute little girls or boys sitting in a giant turkey's lap. Is just doesn't happen.
Do you want to know how far that it has fallen? Thanksgiving is stuck with the perennial powerhouse Detroit Lions playing on "turkey" day. On a side note, I once had a friend tell me that if he only had an hour to live he would watch a Detroit Lions game. When I asked him why, he said because an hour of watching them seems like a lifetime.

Halloween and Thanksgiving have become victims of the new, sexy marketing woman down the hall that pledges to "shake things up. " They don't stand a chance.

However, I think that I'm going to get with Mattress Mack and see if we can come up with something.
Don't be surprised next summer when you see a "Halloween in July" waterbed sale. I'm just sayin.......