Well, it might be a Thing in the USA, that quiet day between Thanksgiving (always celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November) and the weekend, when people are so busy sleeping off their turkey and marshmallows and yams and whatnot that they cannot bring themselves to stir from their vast and beautifully-upholstered sofa to go shopping, and therefore must be tempted with seasonal sale bargains to go and buy stuff. No, I get all that, and hats off to the Americans for having it there. It must be a relief to know exactly which day you’re going to aim to do all of your Christmas shopping. Not in any way an added moment of panic and stress to angst-filled Advent.

But it is NOT a THING over here. Why? Because we DO NOT CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING here in the UK. Maybe we should. I often think it would be nice to take a day out of the hectic maelstrom of life and simply enjoy a day being thankful for all I have. Perhaps an earnest and sentimental open-your-heart expression of thankfulness (to whom?) wouldn’t really be the done thing in this country of restraint and stiff-upper-lippery.

We do not celebrate Thanksgiving here so Black Friday should not exist, you’d think. There should be no excuse to go and behave badly in shops. Does no-one remember that the only permissible occasion for this to occur is on the opening morning of the Harrods Sale and then only once, for the cameras?

And yet, this year my email inbox is flooded by organisations trying to sell me stuff at a discount. I even saw a promoted tweet today that referred to Special Offers for THE WEEK OF THANKSGIVING. How ridiculous. In my view, there’s more of a case for a post-Diwali gold sale in this country than for Black Friday.

I shall not be indulging in Black Friday bargains online, as ASDA or elsewhere.

 

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