Notes from Jackson Street: ‘We need Thanksgiving!’

By CORBY CARLIN WINTERS, Marketing / Public Relations

I spent Munchkin Madness handing out candy to more kids (and parents) than I could count. Down at our office on Jackson Street, streams of every type of superhero, movie character, alien and lots of other munchkins kept coming for two hours. 

Corby Carlin Winters

As usual, and I believe it is growing each year, businesses and downtown homes were decorated to the hilt. Each year, Halloween just keeps exploding with new and crazier costumes and decorations. I finally finished “some” candy and looked up the day after Halloween. Remnants of Halloween were still up, but Christmas was now everywhere! 

I love Christmas! I mean LOVE Christmas! Just ask Winters and all my friends.  I am crazy about decorating, gift giving, gift getting, wrapping of presents, decking the halls and just about every morsel of the holiday season.  But most of all I love the celebration of Christ’s birth.  That makes Christmas the best time of year of all. Frankly, once Halloween is over I am ready to jump right to Christmas.

But between Halloween and Christmas, there’s another holiday that seems to be getting lost in the shuffle. We can’t forget about Thanksgiving.  We need Thanksgiving now more than ever. 

We need Thanksgiving, not just to celebrate the history of our country, but we need it to remind us to stop and celebrate all our blessings. Blessings no matter how big or small are still blessings either way!  It is all in the eye of the beholder.  After covid, social distancing, sheltering in place and so much discord in our country, it is a good time to look at all we have, not what we do not have.

So this November I would like to urge each of us to celebrate each day for all our blessings. Let’s remember that we can’t ever skip Thanksgiving or any opportunity for that matter to be thankful, because too often we do not take the time to acknowledge them.  November is a perfect time to stir up the flames of love, hope, gratitude, faith and joy!

Setting aside a holiday or an ordinary day or  just a brief moment to give thanks remind us of God’s faithfulness, His provisions and His unending love for us.

So may you celebrate  all the blessings you have had and continue to have in your lives no matter how great or small! Take a moment to give thanks!

Be blessed and encouraged abundantly this holiday season and remember that we can NEVER ever skip Thanksgiving and jump to Christmas because Thanksgiving begins to prepare the heart of the believer for the most wonderful time of year, Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving dear friends from all of us at The Paper and The Shopper.  We count you as a great blessing!