Has Thanksgiving Discovered the Lost Spirit of Christmas?

As a child, I always saw Thanksgiving as a patriotic occasion, rooted in the story of pilgrims and indigenous peoples sharing a meal together.  Christmas, on the other hand was unmistakably about the birth of Jesus, a sacred time centered around the Holy Family.

But times have changed.  Today, Thanksgiving feels less like a historical commemoration and more like a season of gratitude, a time for gathering around shared tables and counting our blessings.  Meanwhile, Christmas’ Joy to the World has become more about Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, the Grinch, and Elf then it is about the sacred story at its center. Christmas moved from a religious holiday to cultural phenomenon.

If you browse something as simple as holiday napkins on Amazon, the shift is clear.  Thanksgiving napkins celebrate thankfulness, gratitude, and blessings, while Christmas napkins are more about wreaths, reindeer, and a cheeky “Let’s get lit.”  Although Easter seems to be fading from our cultural consciousness, we have held on to Christmas, but in a more secular way.  And at the same time, we’ve transformed Thanksgiving into something that feels surprisingly spiritual.  It’s as if Thanksgiving has quietly taken up the mantle of reflection and reverence that Christmas once held in our culture.

This transformation in the meaning of Thanksgiving gives me hope that the same sort of transformation can happen to our secular culture’s understanding and celebration of Christmas.  In a country of many faiths and traditions, perhaps we might still find our way back to celebrating Christmas as a nation in a less commercial and more spiritual light.

So, happy Thanksgiving!  May you find yourself thankful, grateful, and blessed.  Here is a prayer I plan to share with those gathered at my Thanksgiving table this

year.