Thanksgiving:
Time to Give Thanks
in Your Family and Business
by
Flora M. Brown, Ph.D.
Copyright 2007
Americans think of Thanksgiving primarily as an American holiday, The truth is that wherever cultures have farmed and gathered crops, they have celebrated the harvest. It is a time to show appreciation for the bounty of the year, to pause from work, and enjoy time with family and friends.
In Ghana the Yam Festival or Homowo is celebrated. It lasts three days and begins with a cleansing ceremony to honor family members who have died. Farmers give thanks to the gods who ensure a good harvest. Because they are thought of as a special gift from God, twins and triplets are honored during this time.
The Chinese Harvest Moon Festival, celebrated on the15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar, is in honor of the harvesting of the rice and wheat crops. Also celebrated in Taiwan, Singapore, and Vietnam during the Chinese Moon Festival families get together to view the full moon, a symbol of luck, harmony and abundance. Adults will eat many different varieties of moon cakes with a good cup of piping hot Chinese tea. Along with the mooncakes, children have parades with lanterns and puppet shows.
Thanksgiving is celebrated many different ways in America. Most workers have the day off from work and spend it eating traditional feasts. Many families worship on this day; others watch football games. Throngs of people watch parades, the most famous of which is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. Some generous families leave their own homes to spend the day feeding the homeless at various city missions and churches.
After Thanksgiving dinner many families gather around the piano after dinner to kick off the holidays by singing Christmas songs (that’s what we did throughout my mom’s lifetime.) Many gather around to watch football on television. Some families end the festivities by drawing names for Christmas gifts. Many play family board and word games. And then there are those who go to bed promptly so they can rise early for the busiest retail day of the year: the day after Thanksgiving, also called Black Friday. Some folks just get out of town to escape doing the traditional. (I escaped with my family to Hawaii one year.)
No matter how Thanksgiving is celebrated, it offers gift basket retailers several opportunities to increase their profits:
1. Make an impact on your clients by getting a jump on holiday sales, especially the weekend following Thanksgiving.
2. Promote holiday gift baskets on your website as hostess gifts to be enjoyed with the dinner or pamper baskets for the hostess to enjoy the weekend after Thanksgiving and for the upcoming holidays.
3. Encourage your clients to send holiday gift baskets to their clients early so they can make an impact ahead of getting lost among the holiday gifts they’ll receive later.
4. Send your last campaign of holiday brochures and postcards to remind your clients to place orders for Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. Be sure to stress the urgency of placing their orders right away.
5. Take this season to send thank you cards to your loyal clients. Showing your appreciation for their business is one of the least expensive and most powerful things you can do.
For more marketing ideas for the holidays and beyond,
see 99 More Sizzling Marketing Ideas to Make More Money.
Learn how to ship from the pros at UPS.
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