Be different this holiday season. Don’t be like everyone else and send holiday cards and gifts for Christmas, Hanukah, and New Years. Instead send Thanksgiving cards or gifts.

Your well-intentioned best wishes during the year end holidays will only get watered down by the crush of others doing the same thing. Additionally, sending a Christmas card to someone of another faith is inconsiderate, if not dumb.

But, let me digress and tell you a little about Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is uniquely North American holiday and universal in its appeal. Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and on the second Monday of October in Canada. The four day weekend and some sympathetic marketing have made the holiday a bigger deal in the United States.

According to Wikipedia, the early settlers of Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts were particularly grateful to Squanto, the Native American who taught them how to both catch eel and grow corn and also served as their native interpreter (as Squanto had converted to Christianity and learned English as a slave in Europe). Without Squanto’s assistance, the settlers might not have survived in the New World.

The Plymouth settlers (who came to be called “Pilgrims” later) set apart a holiday immediately after their first harvest in 1621. They held an autumn celebration of food, feasting, and praising God. The Pilgrims invited the Native Americans for a feast that lasted three days.

Historical revisionists tend to take a harsher view and tell a story that includes lots of ale, abuse of the Native Americans, and land grabbing by the whites, but I prefer to dwell on the current message of Thanksgiving which modern marketers describe as a time of thanks and fellowship with family and friends.

Therefore, be like the Pilgrims and invite your neighbors over for Thanksgiving dinner. Send your customers and colleagues cards expressing your gratitude.

Do this and you will be remembered for being different from the crowd.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2007 All rights reserved.

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1 Comment
  1. Holiday credit cards might be a great deal much much more than pre-printed credit cards stuffed in envelopes with mailing labels applied. With some imagination and also the correct greeting card supplier, a greeting card can be considered a truly special, higher higher high quality present that projects organization professionalism as well as heartfelt wishes for that holiday season.

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