vox--2020-11-26--Why we get defensive about our holiday recipes

Recipe debates tend to get people heated fast .
Things get particularly fiery around the holidays , when people share their tips and preferences online .
Arguments about the best Thanksgiving dish rage on : People seem to feel strongly about things like jellied cranberry sauce , for example , which is popular in America around Thanksgiving but grosses out a lot of people with its sweet flavor and odd texture .
There are perennial debates about stuffing ( or dressing ) , sweet potato preparation is a constant controversy , and , last year , writer Maya Kosoff ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a lot of attention as an unusual side dish option .
Then there ’ s the debate on whether to have a turkey at all — is it delicious , or is it a dry waste of time ?
And how to prepare the turkey can differ greatly from person to person .
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris ’ s recipe , for example , includes oranges .
Outside of the holidays , Twitter users dunked on Drake ’ s birthday menu , which featured a mac and cheese dish with raisins in it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ comfort food and what we bring to the tables where we celebrate .
To find out what exactly it is that triggers such strong reactions in people , we spoke to Donovan Conley , a food researcher and associate professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas , whose work focuses on the cultural and social aspects of food and taste — what shapes our opinions and makes us decide what is “ good ” or “ bad.
” Can you tell us a bit about your views on the strong feelings that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your expertise informs it ?
I think various things are going on , but the first and most important thing , of course , is the question about memory .
Thomas Keller of the French Laundry , a really major food presence in America , always describes food and its appeal as about memory .
It connects you to some of your most cherished past moments .
And for a long time , I thought , “ That seems a little simplistic.
” But I think he actually gets at a lot .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ memory a little more , what it gets at is the fact that food is extremely intimate , right ?
When we ’ re growing up , we become attached to the things that are near to us and that are familiar to us .
My wife and I both had previous marriages .
When we came into this relationship , she had three kids .
She doesn ’ t cook .
So she made salmon every year for the kids for Thanksgiving .
And so I come on the scene , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ roast turkey , and I make this beautiful bird and gravy .
The kids couldn ’ t care less .
They always want salmon .
I ’ ve made peace with the fact that every Thanksgiving I have to make a turkey and a salmon , which is fine .
But it ’ s interesting that it speaks to how we latch onto our positive feelings from our past , and these come to us through our domestic experiences , that come to us through the recipes that our close relatives would make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ repetition and that familiarity that we grab onto .
The other thing to remember is recipes are like accents and the way people talk .
They ’ re very tied to place .
They ’ re very tied to your particular cultural habits , and that ’ s very much about what ’ s around you and what ’ s available , right ?
And so if you grew up in a certain region where there was an abundance of this kind of potato versus that kind of potato , that ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
So it ’ s about identity , it ’ s about memory , and it ’ s about your rootedness and connectedness to a particular place and time .
I think that ’ s why people get really defensive about this way or that way of preparing something .
Because it ’ s not just about the flavor , it ’ s about your sense of belonging , and who you are , and what matters , and what you care about .
I was reading some Aristotle this morning , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sensibilia ” : He says , “ The faculty of taste is a particular form of touch .
This explains why the sensory organ of both the touch and taste is closely related to the heart.
” So taste is a form of touch , and eating is a form of contact with our immediate world .
And so there is this deep groundedness and rootedness that comes with the recipes that we cherish .
So it ’ s more than just a whimsical preference for this ingredient versus that ingredient , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are willing to go to battle , or defend certain recipes .
I think there ’ s a lot of that underneath it , which is , “ This is my very being and my very sense of myself is wrapped up in my memory of this particular food item.
” Can people internalize that in the reverse , in that with certain foods and ingredients , they associate them with bad memories and approach specific foods that way ?
Sure .
The aversion thing , right ?
Yeah .
I think turkey @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that .
But it manifests differently .
I don ’ t know that people fight so hard over foods that don ’ t matter as the ones that they think do matter .
But there are lots of judgments that flow out of these preferences as well .
The way that a lot of our sense of our preferences develops organically , naturally , in terms of what I described .
This is just how we were raised ; these are our practices .
But it ’ s very easy to go from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way we do it and therefore good , ” to “ others do it differently and therefore not as good.
” So then that weird judgment thing kicks in .
I don ’ t watch Food Network anymore , but I used to get so exhausted by it every summer [ when they had ] barbecue programs .
Everyone had to do their barbecue episode .
And then it ’ s like , “ Oh , there ’ s fights over who has the best barbecue.
” It ’ s so boring .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ versus Chicago pizza .
I think it ’ s more about generating media content , frankly .
I mean , it ’ s all good , it ’ s all delicious , right ?
These are regional-specific differences , and fantastic barbecue comes out of all over the place .
But it ’ s really about that rootedness and that history of practices that are specific to a certain kind of culture .
What would you say about the American palate when it comes to their Thanksgiving foods , and what do you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Thanksgiving food is not known to be gourmet by any means .
The clichéd American Thanksgiving plate is turkey , which is very savory .
Gravy , which is extremely savory and fatty and rich .
Mashed potatoes , again , buttery , rich , savory .
Corn sometimes .
But it ’ s very much fat and some sugar .
There ’ s a little bit of tartness with the cranberries to cut through all that fat .
But Thanksgiving food is just heavy , rich , not particularly complicated or nuanced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ food .
Then , of course , within that , everyone has their own particular sides .
And then aside from that , it ’ s a roll of the dice in terms of any particular family preferences .
I used to hate Thanksgiving when I first got really interested in food because I love to cook a lot and I like to push myself .
Thanksgiving is not challenging .
I can whip together Thanksgiving with my eyes closed .
It ’ s really , really simple .
It really just appeals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ easy to chew .
It ’ s not texturally challenging .
I hate to say it , but it ’ s pretty close to baby food , which is , I think , the broad appeal of it , too .
Mashed potatoes and gravy is my son ’ s absolute favorite thing .
The reason , I think , is because it ’ s that consistency , which is really easy to deal with and it ’ s just fat , butter , and salt .
So Thanksgiving food is broad-appeal food @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hook into something , more or less .
“ I can whip together Thanksgiving with my eyes closed .
I hate to say it , but it ’ s pretty close to baby food , which is , I think , the broad appeal of it , too.
” Growing up , I was really not interested in Thanksgiving , just because the traditional Thanksgiving foods to me were just dry .
I do like Thanksgiving a lot now that I ’ m older .
But as a kid , I was not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ food was so bland .
Even the best version of Thanksgiving food is still pretty mundane .
It ’ s a kind of buffet food .
I ’ ve done versions where I ’ ve tried to fancy it up and make it really impressive .
But frankly , I think Thanksgiving food is just meant to be comfort food .
It ’ s comfort food , whether or not we even love the food .
We love the ritual , coming home , being together .
The food is part of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t particularly love the food , but you plug into the code that you get to enjoy once a year .
I think it ’ s maybe especially pronounced in a context like the one we ’ re in right now where there ’ s so much stress , anxiety , uncertainty .
There ’ s scarcity .
I feel like if our food memories and our emotions around food are about preserving our favorite parts of the past , that ’ s accentuated in a time of radical uncertainty and fear and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even tighter to the things that matter the most .
That ’ s a hypothesis .
If our emotions around food memories are connected to our positive pasts and preserving that , it makes perfect sense that in times of radical uncertainty and anxiety , we would dig into that and double down on that kind of stuff .
It ’ s reconnecting with some of your favorite parts of your own life , I think , because the memories are there and they ’ re associated with these foods in very material @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not just choices that we necessarily make freely .
It ’ s deeply embedded in us , in our psyches and physicalities .
One of the things people are worried about with the pandemic this year is that everyone is expecting that post-Thanksgiving case spike .
It ’ s been such an isolating year for so many people , but I feel like there ’ s something very American and ingrained into us about Thanksgiving and the holiday season that I find so fascinating .
This is the one thing that we can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the interest of public safety .
Yeah , exactly .
We ’ ve been really bad about this throughout the summer .
We ’ re going into some scary times .
I fully expect people to ignore the need to stay distant .
But it ’ s really hard when things suck so bad to not indulge in some of the most precious experiences that you have .
I think for a lot of people , it ’ s maybe not just the food itself , but the total context of sitting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or whatever , but there ’ s a game in the background , or there ’ s the smell of candles , or whatever it is , that total configuration of elements is something that means a lot to all of us .
But for Americans , it ’ s Thanksgiving in a particular way .
And then it ’ s Christmas in a particular way .
But I think every culture has their version .
I lived in China for a while .
Chinese New Year is like , we can ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New Year .
So it ’ s just our particular form .
It evolves over time , too .
These things evolve over time and yet we still hang on to them tightly .
One of the things that ’ s really fascinating to me about food is the way it interfaces between this biological necessity , right ?
We all have to eat , but then it also interfaces with cultural values and meaning-making .
And so there ’ s that part of it where what we eat growing up is very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s available , and what we ’ re accustomed to , and so on .
And then that carries on over time and it becomes a key part of how we think of ourselves .
Everyone goes through that same version of , these are the things that are available , this is the way my parents are now transferring their own cultural learnings on to me , this is what I pick up and adopt , and so on .
I ’ m really fascinated by that whole historical dynamic .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ nature and biology on the one hand and the choices and values and preferences that we would call cultural on the other hand .
There ’ s an interesting swing that happens back and forth when you ’ re talking about recipes and the things that we care about .
You mentioned that those kinds of food preferences and memories are shaped on a historical or a cultural level by what food is available .
I find it interesting because Thanksgiving foods are also so filling , which might have to do with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the time that Thanksgiving was born .
I ’ m Canadian , actually .
We largely do the same thing up in Canada .
But we actually have Thanksgiving , I think it ’ s a month or three weeks before the American Thanksgiving .
That ’ s because of an earlier harvest because of colder weather .
But it ’ s the same idea .
It ’ s celebrating the bounty .
And so it ’ s all these vegetables , and let ’ s kill a bird .

Recipe debates tend to get people heated fast. Things get particularly fiery around the holidays, when people share their tips and preferences online. Arguments about the best Thanksgiving dish rage on: People seem to feel strongly about things like jellied cranberry sauce, for example, which is popular in America around Thanksgiving but grosses out a lot of people with its sweet flavor and odd texture.
There are perennial debates about stuffing (or dressing), sweet potato preparation is a constant controversy, and, last year, writer Maya Kosoff’s Thanksgiving “seafoam salad” got a lot of attention as an unusual side dish option. Then there’s the debate on whether to have a turkey at all — is it delicious, or is it a dry waste of time? And how to prepare the turkey can differ greatly from person to person. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s recipe, for example, includes oranges. Outside of the holidays, Twitter users dunked on Drake’s birthday menu, which featured a mac and cheese dish with raisins in it.
ours is a wild creation called seafoam salad. i thought this was a normal thing every family made and served for thanksgiving next to the turkey and the stuffing until i was 18. pic.twitter.com/xE7mQ8W99R — maya kosoff (@mekosoff) November 23, 2019
We get very touchy about our comfort food and what we bring to the tables where we celebrate. To find out what exactly it is that triggers such strong reactions in people, we spoke to Donovan Conley, a food researcher and associate professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, whose work focuses on the cultural and social aspects of food and taste — what shapes our opinions and makes us decide what is “good” or “bad.”
Can you tell us a bit about your views on the strong feelings that people have toward holiday recipes and how your expertise informs it?
I think various things are going on, but the first and most important thing, of course, is the question about memory. Thomas Keller of the French Laundry, a really major food presence in America, always describes food and its appeal as about memory. It connects you to some of your most cherished past moments.
And for a long time, I thought, “That seems a little simplistic.” But I think he actually gets at a lot. When you scratch at that question of memory a little more, what it gets at is the fact that food is extremely intimate, right? When we’re growing up, we become attached to the things that are near to us and that are familiar to us.
My wife and I both had previous marriages. When we came into this relationship, she had three kids. She doesn’t cook. So she made salmon every year for the kids for Thanksgiving.
And so I come on the scene, and I have all these lovely memories of roast turkey, and I make this beautiful bird and gravy. The kids couldn’t care less. They always want salmon. I’ve made peace with the fact that every Thanksgiving I have to make a turkey and a salmon, which is fine. But it’s interesting that it speaks to how we latch onto our positive feelings from our past, and these come to us through our domestic experiences, that come to us through the recipes that our close relatives would make. And so it’s that repetition and that familiarity that we grab onto.
Mac and cheese has no place at the Thanksgiving table. — Elizabeth Thorp (@ElizabethEThorp) November 9, 2020
The other thing to remember is recipes are like accents and the way people talk. They’re very tied to place. They’re very tied to your particular cultural habits, and that’s very much about what’s around you and what’s available, right? And so if you grew up in a certain region where there was an abundance of this kind of potato versus that kind of potato, that’s what you’re going to use. So it’s about identity, it’s about memory, and it’s about your rootedness and connectedness to a particular place and time.
I think that’s why people get really defensive about this way or that way of preparing something. Because it’s not just about the flavor, it’s about your sense of belonging, and who you are, and what matters, and what you care about.
I was reading some Aristotle this morning, and he writes this in “Sense and Sensibilia”: He says, “The faculty of taste is a particular form of touch. This explains why the sensory organ of both the touch and taste is closely related to the heart.” So taste is a form of touch, and eating is a form of contact with our immediate world.
And so there is this deep groundedness and rootedness that comes with the recipes that we cherish. So it’s more than just a whimsical preference for this ingredient versus that ingredient, I think, to the extent that people are willing to go to battle, or defend certain recipes. I think there’s a lot of that underneath it, which is, “This is my very being and my very sense of myself is wrapped up in my memory of this particular food item.”
Can people internalize that in the reverse, in that with certain foods and ingredients, they associate them with bad memories and approach specific foods that way?
Sure. The aversion thing, right? Yeah. I think turkey for my kids is an aversion to that. But it manifests differently. I don’t know that people fight so hard over foods that don’t matter as the ones that they think do matter. But there are lots of judgments that flow out of these preferences as well. The way that a lot of our sense of our preferences develops organically, naturally, in terms of what I described. This is just how we were raised; these are our practices. But it’s very easy to go from there to “this is just the way we do it and therefore good,” to “others do it differently and therefore not as good.” So then that weird judgment thing kicks in.
I don’t watch Food Network anymore, but I used to get so exhausted by it every summer [when they had] barbecue programs. Everyone had to do their barbecue episode. And then it’s like, “Oh, there’s fights over who has the best barbecue.” It’s so boring. And that question about New York pizza versus Chicago pizza. I think it’s more about generating media content, frankly. I mean, it’s all good, it’s all delicious, right? These are regional-specific differences, and fantastic barbecue comes out of all over the place. But it’s really about that rootedness and that history of practices that are specific to a certain kind of culture.
What would you say about the American palate when it comes to their Thanksgiving foods, and what do you think it says about American culture?
Thanksgiving food is not known to be gourmet by any means. The clichéd American Thanksgiving plate is turkey, which is very savory. Gravy, which is extremely savory and fatty and rich. Mashed potatoes, again, buttery, rich, savory. Corn sometimes. But it’s very much fat and some sugar. There’s a little bit of tartness with the cranberries to cut through all that fat. But Thanksgiving food is just heavy, rich, not particularly complicated or nuanced food. It’s broad appeal-type food. Then, of course, within that, everyone has their own particular sides. And then aside from that, it’s a roll of the dice in terms of any particular family preferences.
I used to hate Thanksgiving when I first got really interested in food because I love to cook a lot and I like to push myself. Thanksgiving is not challenging. I can whip together Thanksgiving with my eyes closed. It’s really, really simple. It really just appeals to that basic palate of fat, easy to chew. It’s not texturally challenging. I hate to say it, but it’s pretty close to baby food, which is, I think, the broad appeal of it, too. Mashed potatoes and gravy is my son’s absolute favorite thing. The reason, I think, is because it’s that consistency, which is really easy to deal with and it’s just fat, butter, and salt. So Thanksgiving food is broad-appeal food. It’s like everyone can hook into something, more or less.
“I can whip together Thanksgiving with my eyes closed. I hate to say it, but it’s pretty close to baby food, which is, I think, the broad appeal of it, too.”
Growing up, I was really not interested in Thanksgiving, just because the traditional Thanksgiving foods to me were just dry. I do like Thanksgiving a lot now that I’m older. But as a kid, I was not interested in it because I felt the food was so bland.
Even the best version of Thanksgiving food is still pretty mundane. It’s a kind of buffet food. I’ve done versions where I’ve tried to fancy it up and make it really impressive. But frankly, I think Thanksgiving food is just meant to be comfort food. It’s comfort food, whether or not we even love the food. We love the ritual, coming home, being together. The food is part of the formula, even if we don’t particularly love the food, but you plug into the code that you get to enjoy once a year.
I think it’s maybe especially pronounced in a context like the one we’re in right now where there’s so much stress, anxiety, uncertainty. There’s scarcity. I feel like if our food memories and our emotions around food are about preserving our favorite parts of the past, that’s accentuated in a time of radical uncertainty and fear and anxiety. You hang [on] even tighter to the things that matter the most. That’s a hypothesis. If our emotions around food memories are connected to our positive pasts and preserving that, it makes perfect sense that in times of radical uncertainty and anxiety, we would dig into that and double down on that kind of stuff.
It’s reconnecting with some of your favorite parts of your own life, I think, because the memories are there and they’re associated with these foods in very material, physical ways. They’re not just choices that we necessarily make freely. It’s deeply embedded in us, in our psyches and physicalities.
One of the things people are worried about with the pandemic this year is that everyone is expecting that post-Thanksgiving case spike. It’s been such an isolating year for so many people, but I feel like there’s something very American and ingrained into us about Thanksgiving and the holiday season that I find so fascinating. This is the one thing that we cannot really let go of, even in the interest of public safety.
Yeah, exactly. We’ve been really bad about this throughout the summer. We’re going into some scary times. I fully expect people to ignore the need to stay distant. But it’s really hard when things suck so bad to not indulge in some of the most precious experiences that you have.
I think for a lot of people, it’s maybe not just the food itself, but the total context of sitting down with this plate of dry food or whatever, but there’s a game in the background, or there’s the smell of candles, or whatever it is, that total configuration of elements is something that means a lot to all of us. But for Americans, it’s Thanksgiving in a particular way. And then it’s Christmas in a particular way.
But I think every culture has their version. I lived in China for a while. Chinese New Year is like, we can’t touch what they do for Chinese New Year. So it’s just our particular form. It evolves over time, too. These things evolve over time and yet we still hang on to them tightly.
One of the things that’s really fascinating to me about food is the way it interfaces between this biological necessity, right? We all have to eat, but then it also interfaces with cultural values and meaning-making. And so there’s that part of it where what we eat growing up is very much about that necessity, and what’s available, and what we’re accustomed to, and so on. And then that carries on over time and it becomes a key part of how we think of ourselves. Everyone goes through that same version of, these are the things that are available, this is the way my parents are now transferring their own cultural learnings on to me, this is what I pick up and adopt, and so on.
I’m really fascinated by that whole historical dynamic. But that connection between the necessities of nature and biology on the one hand and the choices and values and preferences that we would call cultural on the other hand. There’s an interesting swing that happens back and forth when you’re talking about recipes and the things that we care about.
You mentioned that those kinds of food preferences and memories are shaped on a historical or a cultural level by what food is available. I find it interesting because Thanksgiving foods are also so filling, which might have to do with scarcity or just some crop availability at the time that Thanksgiving was born.
I’m Canadian, actually. We largely do the same thing up in Canada. But we actually have Thanksgiving, I think it’s a month or three weeks before the American Thanksgiving. That’s because of an earlier harvest because of colder weather.
But it’s the same idea. It’s celebrating the bounty. And so it’s all these vegetables, and let’s kill a bird.


vox--2020-11-26--The true story behind Arlo Guthrie’s Thanksgiving staple, “Alice’s Restaurant”

Thanksgiving is here : a time for family , friends , gravy , and Arlo Guthrie talk-singing his way through an 18-minute-long anti-war song about littering .
A natural fit , no ?
That ’ s what various rock radio stations around the country seem to have concluded , because most major cities in America now have at least one station that makes a point of playing Guthrie ’ s “ Alice ’ s Restaurant ” every Thanksgiving .
In my own hometown of Philadelphia , WXPN ’ s Helen Leicht plays it every year at noon , and in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ radio like we ’ re in an old-timey Norman Rockwell painting , ripping apart bread for the stuffing and singing , “ Had a Thanksgiving dinner that COULDN ’ T BE BEAT !
” Guthrie ’ s “ Alice ’ s Restaurant ” was originally released in 1967 as “ Alice ’ s Restaurant Massacree , ” and it ’ s only nominally about either Thanksgiving , Alice , or her restaurant .
It ’ s a shaggy , rambling story-song , in which Guthrie spends Thanksgiving ( with a dinner that couldn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Alice ( of the restaurant ) , and then as a favor tries to drive her trash out to the dump , only to find that the dump is closed for Thanksgiving .
So he leaves the trash in a garbage pile by the side of the road and is subsequently arrested for littering — which , when Guthrie comes before the draft board , is the reason the military cites for choosing not to draft him .
“ You want to know if I ’ m moral enough join the army , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and villages after being a litterbug , ” drawls Guthrie , to which the sergeant replies , “ Kid , we don ’ t like your kind.
” In Guthrie ’ s deadpan delivery , the whole story has a loopy , fever-dream quality , but most of what happens in it is true .
Guthrie ’ s littering made the local paper that fateful Thanksgiving of 1965 , with Police Chief William J. Obanhein ( the Officer Obie of the song ) remarking sternly that he hoped the case would serve “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ careless about the disposal of rubbish.
” And Guthrie was , in fact , disqualified from the draft because of his arrest record .
“ I just couldn ’ t believe it , ” he told NPR in 2005 .
“ And so I turned it into a song .
It took about a year to put together , and I ’ ve been telling it ever since just about.
” The song that Guthrie has continued singing ever since is a kind of scathing ode to bureaucratic idiocy , to a system @ @ @ @ @ @ @ littering as a scandalous sin even as it celebrates military violence .
And at the end , it becomes a protest song .
“ The only reason I ’ m / Singing you this song now is ‘ cause you may know somebody in a similar / Situation , or you may be in a similar situation , ” Guthrie explains .
“ And if you ’ re in a / Situation like that there ’ s only one thing you can do and that ’ s walk into / The shrink wherever @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ‘ Shrink , You can get / Anything you want , at Alice ’ s restaurant.
’ And walk out.
” The song , Guthrie proclaims , will become a movement : “ the Alice ’ s Restaurant Anti-Massacree Movement.
” A massacree is a series of absurd events , so the Alice ’ s Restaurant Movement is against absurdity and in favor of reason .
It is against arresting someone for littering and in favor of ending wars .
“ Alice ’ s Restaurant ” had its radio premiere in February @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s WBAI-FM , in a live performance , and it almost immediately became a runaway hit .
Guthrie released a recording of another live performance in October of that year — the recording that radio stations play now — and that ’ s when the song started to become a Thanksgiving institution .
“ It ’ s celebrating idiocy you might say , ” Guthrie said in 2005 .
“ I mean , thank God that the people that run this world are not smart enough to keep running it forever.
” A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Happy Thanksgiving .

Thanksgiving is here: a time for family, friends, gravy, and Arlo Guthrie talk-singing his way through an 18-minute-long anti-war song about littering. A natural fit, no?
That’s what various rock radio stations around the country seem to have concluded, because most major cities in America now have at least one station that makes a point of playing Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” every Thanksgiving. In my own hometown of Philadelphia, WXPN’s Helen Leicht plays it every year at noon, and in non-pandemic years my family gathers around the radio like we’re in an old-timey Norman Rockwell painting, ripping apart bread for the stuffing and singing, “Had a Thanksgiving dinner that COULDN’T BE BEAT!”
Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” was originally released in 1967 as “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” and it’s only nominally about either Thanksgiving, Alice, or her restaurant. It’s a shaggy, rambling story-song, in which Guthrie spends Thanksgiving (with a dinner that couldn’t be beat!) with Alice (of the restaurant), and then as a favor tries to drive her trash out to the dump, only to find that the dump is closed for Thanksgiving. So he leaves the trash in a garbage pile by the side of the road and is subsequently arrested for littering — which, when Guthrie comes before the draft board, is the reason the military cites for choosing not to draft him.
“You want to know if I’m moral enough join the army, burn women / Kids, houses, and villages after being a litterbug,” drawls Guthrie, to which the sergeant replies, “Kid, we don’t like your kind.”
In Guthrie’s deadpan delivery, the whole story has a loopy, fever-dream quality, but most of what happens in it is true. Guthrie’s littering made the local paper that fateful Thanksgiving of 1965, with Police Chief William J. Obanhein (the Officer Obie of the song) remarking sternly that he hoped the case would serve “as an example to others who are careless about the disposal of rubbish.”
50 years ago yesterday (Nov. 29, 1965) the Berkshire Eagle printed a little article about two young men being fined $25... Posted by Berkshire Eagle on Monday, November 30, 2015
And Guthrie was, in fact, disqualified from the draft because of his arrest record. “I just couldn’t believe it,” he told NPR in 2005. “And so I turned it into a song. It took about a year to put together, and I’ve been telling it ever since just about.”
The song that Guthrie has continued singing ever since is a kind of scathing ode to bureaucratic idiocy, to a system that so prizes conformity that it treats littering as a scandalous sin even as it celebrates military violence. And at the end, it becomes a protest song.
“The only reason I’m / Singing you this song now is ’cause you may know somebody in a similar / Situation, or you may be in a similar situation,” Guthrie explains. “And if you’re in a / Situation like that there’s only one thing you can do and that’s walk into / The shrink wherever you are, just walk in say, ‘Shrink, You can get / Anything you want, at Alice’s restaurant.’ And walk out.”
The song, Guthrie proclaims, will become a movement: “the Alice’s Restaurant Anti-Massacree Movement.” A massacree is a series of absurd events, so the Alice’s Restaurant Movement is against absurdity and in favor of reason. It is against arresting someone for littering and in favor of ending wars.
“Alice’s Restaurant” had its radio premiere in February of 1967 on New York City’s WBAI-FM, in a live performance, and it almost immediately became a runaway hit. Guthrie released a recording of another live performance in October of that year — the recording that radio stations play now — and that’s when the song started to become a Thanksgiving institution.
“It’s celebrating idiocy, you might say,” Guthrie said in 2005. “I mean, thank God that the people that run this world are not smart enough to keep running it forever.”
A sentiment that is particularly comforting this year. Happy Thanksgiving.


vox--2020-11-27--Holiday shopping as we know it is over — just ask seasonal workers

Holiday hiring events for malls used to be a big deal , with lines rivaling those for jaw-dropping Black Friday electronic deals .
Anchor retailers and specialty stores held huge in-person hiring events as early as September , heralding the start of the busiest , most exciting part of the retail year .
But this season , don ’ t expect big spikes in hiring for mall Santas ( who may be socially distanced in plexiglass snow domes ) , gift wrappers , or additional staff to work the aisles on Black Friday .
As the Covid-19 pandemic enters a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ home , the holiday season will be a gift for e-commerce as retailers scramble to adjust inventory and schedules to find some bright spots amid spending uncertainty .
As the ongoing shift online accelerates this year , its impact will be magnified in the job market .
According to Andrew Chamberlain , chief economist of the jobs site Glassdoor , the site has seen a sharp rise in interest for jobs in the warehouse sector , 210 percent more than last year — one of many indications that , in 2020 , often-temporary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Economies usually leave a recession looking different , ” he says .
“ This is an example where a pandemic will lead to a massive shift in how we spend.
” Getting a part-time gig folding sweaters at the Gap or being an elf for a fake North Pole display has long been a tradition during the busy holiday season , an important way to make a few extra dollars during an expensive time of the year , especially for students and seniors .
In 2018 , retailers added roughly 625,600 temp @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hiring spree slowed down a bit , with companies looking to fill only 590,000 positions .
This year , recruiting firm Challenger , Gray & Christmas says companies have announced just 378,200 positions as of mid-October .
Glassdoor ’ s Chamberlain says that an analysis of the site ’ s roughly 6 million holiday and seasonal job postings shows listings are down 8 percent over last year , which is actually better than the overall 16 percent drop in postings across all industries .
There ’ s a bump this winter , just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ Black Friday is kind of over as an idea .
...
It ’ s basically Black Fall.
” Analysts believe 2020 will radically upend that model , perhaps for good .
In-person retail , already restricted due to health precautions and wary customers eyeing the third wave of the coronavirus , is a shadow of its usual self .
A National Retail Federation survey of 54 retailers found that 96 percent expect more online sales this year , 61 percent plan to stock less in-store merchandise , and half likely won @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sucharita Kodali , retail analyst at Forrester , says one of the only bright spots this year , when a record-breaking 1 in 5 retail dollars was spent online , has been essential retail , such as grocery and pharmacy .
Even big holiday shopping draws like toys have migrated online .
Retailers such as Walmart and Target have been spreading out Black Friday events to avoid drawing large crowds , though a PriceWaterhouseCoopers consumer survey found that certain areas and demographics still plan to shop in person ; 76 percent of those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the suburbs , and 42 percent are from the South .
“ Black Friday is kind of over as an idea , ” says Zachary Rogers , an assistant professor of supply chain management at Colorado State University who previously worked at an Amazon subsidiary .
“ Prime Day was October , Black Friday and Cyber Monday in November , holidays in December .
It ’ s basically Black Fall.
” Holiday shopping as a whole won ’ t have the same meaning this year or for many years in the future , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at Rutgers University who specializes in consumer psychology ; with the retail industry in tatters , it ’ s unlikely to represent the breakeven point for businesses ( when ledgers go from red to black ) .
And optimistic forecasts that families will want to maintain the holiday tradition of a visit to the mall may underestimate the desire to cut or consolidate trips , not to mention the specter of more restrictions or shutdowns .
“ Even if stores do open , people will be reluctant to go out and have fun @ @ @ @ @ @ @ months didn ’ t happen , ” he says .
“ Shopping is a way to connect and do something for yourself , and that habit has changed during this year ’ s disruption .
Shopping is a part of our culture , and this year has changed culture itself.
” The significant shift in the seasonal employment picture doesn ’ t show a temporary break with tradition ; it ’ s more evidence of the continuing , radical restructuring of the economy away from in-person retail .
The pandemic has pushed many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ online shopping , Monga says , and consumer inertia is hard to reverse .
“ If consumers aren ’ t spending , retailers don ’ t have cash on hand to hire people , which creates a vicious cycle where there ’ s less employment , fewer profits , and the economic engine of stores just doesn ’ t grow , ” Monga says .
“ The whole ecosystem of retail is disrupted.
” “ Shopping is a part of our culture , and this year has changed culture itself ” It ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ industry currently struggling to meet surging holiday demand that will likely become a permanent expansion of e-commerce capacity ( fears of the latest wave of Covid-19 infections will only push more shopping online , further straining the system ) .
The industry hit a record 1.25 million employees in September , according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics .
The Logistics Managers ’ Index , an industry report compiled by Rogers looking at demand and capacity , predicts record-high levels of e-commerce activity this season ; Q4 activity will be up 50 percent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ percent jump from pre-pandemic predictions .
Karl Siebrecht , CEO of Flexe , a company that provides temporary warehouse space to retailers , says there ’ s a huge hiring problem in e-commerce in anticipation of fourth-quarter delivery spikes ( Amazon announced plans to hire 100,000 more seasonal workers in September and is offering some $ 1,000 bonuses ) .
“ We ’ re already running hot , How do we layer on the fourth-quarter peak ?
” Siebrecht says .
“ Competition for labor is the biggest issue.
” Filling jobs at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is already a challenge .
A recent report by Daniel Schneider and Kristen Harknett , sociologists who have been studying retail and service sector workers , found that “ Walmart , Amazon , and UPS lag in terms of cleaning , gloves , and masks ” for employees , exacerbating worries that as warehouses get more crowded over the coming months , infection risks will increase .
Valeria ( who prefers not to use her real name ) , 59 , works at a warehouse in Elizabeth , New Jersey , that packages @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She says that as the holidays approach , management has added more and more workers ; it ’ s the busiest she ’ s seen since she began working at the company four years ago .
Workers are provided with hand sanitizer , masks , and gloves , but there ’ s no social distancing , they just cram the lines tighter and tighter .
“ Right now , a few people are sick , ” she said via a translator .
“ The company told them to get tests and not come @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re operating like every product is essential , but only the hand sanitizer is .
We all want to be beautiful and we ’ re in difficult times .
I only work because I have to , if not I ’ d stay at home , I ’ m scared all the time of being sick.
” Beth Gutelius , an academic and researcher at Center for Urban Economic Development who studies the changing nature of work , says a simple calculus — more temporary workers being added to the same fixed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ safety issues , Covid-19 spread , and burnout ( and Amazon has been less than transparent about these issues throughout the last six months ) .
The rhetoric of the heroism of essential workers , including warehouse and retail workers , is ringing hollow at this point , she says .
“ In the end , you have to throw more workers at the problem of e-commerce fulfillment , and they ’ ve raised very serious issues about health and safety , ” she says .
“ There ’ s lots of physical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when they ’ re handling work that quickly .
Warehouse workers , and increasingly retail workers as more companies adopt ship-from-store e-commerce fulfillment strategies , help the rest of us practice social distancing , but this dynamic is possible only because workers are risking their own well-being , and not necessarily by choice.
” According to a survey of industry operators conducted by Flexe , 65 percent said labor shortages were impacting their business and 47 percent have increased wages to be more competitive .
Amazon ’ s and Walmart ’ s big @ @ @ @ @ @ @ add hundreds of thousands of jobs and pay a few extra dollars an hour have rippled through an industry seeking greater capacity .
And it ’ s not just for the winter surge — typically the season when workers face weeks with additional overtime and higher-than-normal rates of on-the-job injuries and stress — but for next year .
E-commerce is racing to adjust to unforeseen circumstances , with a predicted “ shipageddon ” this year leading analysts to suggest hot items will disappear early and companies will plead with consumers to order as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year , the Singles Day holiday netted $ 75 billion in sales , nearly double the amount last year , which led to packages being piled on the ground near mailboxes and delivery sites .
China , generally speaking , has a robust delivery infrastructure .
The sector is clearly dealing with the downsides of unexpected demand — not painful contraction — often turning to temporary employees and hiring agencies .
“ Honestly , I don ’ t know how Amazon is going to do it this year , ” says Rogers .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Prime Day to October .
The transportation part of this will be really tough .
They ’ ll do whatever they can and everyone else will try to keep up.
” Shipping is not the only concern .
There ’ s also the problem of returns , which Rogers says are “ two to three times more for e-commerce purchases versus brick and mortar , depending on the product.
” That adds up : “ There will be like an additional billion dollars of returns this year , and they ’ re going @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There ’ s a wave coming , and I ’ m very interested to see what happens between late November and early January.
” It may seem counterintuitive that in the midst of severe economic shock , huge corporations such as Amazon and Walmart would struggle to find workers .
But the labor supply situation is incredibly unorthodox , says Chamberlain .
There ’ s a significant compositional shift away from traditional work — say , a job at the counter at Sephora — and toward warehouses and delivery gigs .
And many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; whether they ’ re worried about getting sick , the added pressure of handling child care , or waiting out a furlough , many people are simply in limbo , Chamberlain has found .
Monga points to two indexes of consumer activity and attitudes as red lights for retail : the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index ( down nearly 20 percent since last December ) and the savings rate ( currently double the typical 6 to 8 percent range ) .
Americans are , overall , wary and worried , and even those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ portion of their potential disposable income .
The few bright spots , such as outdoor retailer REI , can ’ t overcome sharp drops in clothing purchases .
This dismal holiday hiring season will just lock in structural shifts decimating retail , especially as warehouse operators adopt robotics and other means of increasing efficiency .
“ Automation and rising productivity are ways to do more with less , ” says Chamberlain .
“ By far the largest cost in production is people .
Wages are high .
If sales double in traditional retail @ @ @ @ @ @ @ number of workers .
But for Amazon and Walmart , they may need just 10 percent more people to handle that rush.
” Rogers points to a newly reopened Macy ’ s facility in Littleton , Colorado , as the future of retail employment .
This new omni service center features packing , delivery , and pick-up services , but the so-called dark store isn ’ t open for the public to enter and shop .
In effect , Macy ’ s is hiring and staffing for the holidays , but the jobs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the gigs found in the general logistics and warehouse industry .
Even many of the seasonal retail gigs that remain are starting to look more and more like those found in warehouses .
“ They ’ re doing the same job as an Amazon picker , but in a store , ” says Gutelius .
“ The lines are getting very blurry .
”

Holiday hiring events for malls used to be a big deal, with lines rivaling those for jaw-dropping Black Friday electronic deals. Anchor retailers and specialty stores held huge in-person hiring events as early as September, heralding the start of the busiest, most exciting part of the retail year. But this season, don’t expect big spikes in hiring for mall Santas (who may be socially distanced in plexiglass snow domes), gift wrappers, or additional staff to work the aisles on Black Friday.
As the Covid-19 pandemic enters a dangerous spike nationwide and shoppers mostly stay home, the holiday season will be a gift for e-commerce as retailers scramble to adjust inventory and schedules to find some bright spots amid spending uncertainty. As the ongoing shift online accelerates this year, its impact will be magnified in the job market. According to Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist of the jobs site Glassdoor, the site has seen a sharp rise in interest for jobs in the warehouse sector, 210 percent more than last year — one of many indications that, in 2020, often-temporary seasonal hiring signifies something more permanent.
“Economies usually leave a recession looking different,” he says. “This is an example where a pandemic will lead to a massive shift in how we spend.”
Getting a part-time gig folding sweaters at the Gap or being an elf for a fake North Pole display has long been a tradition during the busy holiday season, an important way to make a few extra dollars during an expensive time of the year, especially for students and seniors. In 2018, retailers added roughly 625,600 temp jobs. Last year, the seasonal hiring spree slowed down a bit, with companies looking to fill only 590,000 positions. This year, recruiting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas says companies have announced just 378,200 positions as of mid-October.
Glassdoor’s Chamberlain says that an analysis of the site’s roughly 6 million holiday and seasonal job postings shows listings are down 8 percent over last year, which is actually better than the overall 16 percent drop in postings across all industries. There’s a bump this winter, just not as big as in years past.
“Black Friday is kind of over as an idea. ... It’s basically Black Fall.”
Analysts believe 2020 will radically upend that model, perhaps for good. In-person retail, already restricted due to health precautions and wary customers eyeing the third wave of the coronavirus, is a shadow of its usual self. A National Retail Federation survey of 54 retailers found that 96 percent expect more online sales this year, 61 percent plan to stock less in-store merchandise, and half likely won’t hire extra in-store staff.
Sucharita Kodali, retail analyst at Forrester, says one of the only bright spots this year, when a record-breaking 1 in 5 retail dollars was spent online, has been essential retail, such as grocery and pharmacy. Even big holiday shopping draws like toys have migrated online. Retailers such as Walmart and Target have been spreading out Black Friday events to avoid drawing large crowds, though a PriceWaterhouseCoopers consumer survey found that certain areas and demographics still plan to shop in person; 76 percent of those who will venture into stores are in the suburbs, and 42 percent are from the South.
“Black Friday is kind of over as an idea,” says Zachary Rogers, an assistant professor of supply chain management at Colorado State University who previously worked at an Amazon subsidiary. “Prime Day was October, Black Friday and Cyber Monday in November, holidays in December. It’s basically Black Fall.”
Holiday shopping as a whole won’t have the same meaning this year, or for many years in the future, says Ashwani Monga, a marketing professor at Rutgers University who specializes in consumer psychology; with the retail industry in tatters, it’s unlikely to represent the breakeven point for businesses (when ledgers go from red to black). And optimistic forecasts that families will want to maintain the holiday tradition of a visit to the mall may underestimate the desire to cut or consolidate trips, not to mention the specter of more restrictions or shutdowns.
“Even if stores do open, people will be reluctant to go out and have fun or splurge as if the last few months didn’t happen,” he says. “Shopping is a way to connect and do something for yourself, and that habit has changed during this year’s disruption. Shopping is a part of our culture, and this year has changed culture itself.”
The significant shift in the seasonal employment picture doesn’t show a temporary break with tradition; it’s more evidence of the continuing, radical restructuring of the economy away from in-person retail. The pandemic has pushed many shoppers who were e-commerce holdouts to adopt online shopping, Monga says, and consumer inertia is hard to reverse.
“If consumers aren’t spending, retailers don’t have cash on hand to hire people, which creates a vicious cycle where there’s less employment, fewer profits, and the economic engine of stores just doesn’t grow,” Monga says. “The whole ecosystem of retail is disrupted.”
“Shopping is a part of our culture, and this year has changed culture itself”
It’s also strained the warehouse and logistics industry, which is currently struggling to meet surging holiday demand that seems likely to become a permanent expansion of e-commerce capacity, as fears of the latest wave of Covid-19 infections push more shopping online, further straining the system. The industry hit a record 1.25 million employees in September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Logistics Managers’ Index, an industry report looking at demand and capacity compiled by Rogers, predicts record-high levels of e-commerce activity this season; Q4 activity will be up 50 percent compared to last year, a 13 percent jump from pre-pandemic predictions.
Karl Siebrecht, CEO of Flexe, a company that provides temporary warehouse space to retailers, says there’s a huge hiring problem in e-commerce in anticipation of fourth-quarter delivery spikes (Amazon announced plans to hire 100,000 more seasonal workers in September and is offering some $1,000 bonuses).
“We’re already running hot, how do we layer on the fourth-quarter peak?” Siebrecht says. “Competition for labor is the biggest issue.”
Filling jobs at sites typically located away from population centers is already a challenge. A recent report by Daniel Schneider and Kristen Harknett, sociologists who have been studying retail and service sector workers, found that “Walmart, Amazon, and UPS lag in terms of cleaning, gloves, and masks” for employees, exacerbating worries that as warehouses get more crowded over the coming months, infection risks will increase.
Valeria (who prefers not to use her real name), 59, works at a warehouse in Elizabeth, New Jersey, that packages and ships cosmetics and hand sanitizer. She says that as the holidays approach, management has added more and more workers; it’s the busiest she’s seen it since she began working at the company four years ago. Workers are provided with hand sanitizer, masks, and gloves, but there’s no social distancing; they just cram the lines tighter and tighter.
“Right now, a few people are sick,” she said via a translator. “The company told them to get tests and not come back until they are negative. They’re operating like every product is essential, but only the hand sanitizer is. We all want to be beautiful and we’re in difficult times. I only work because I have to, if not I’d stay at home, I’m scared all the time of being sick.”
Beth Gutelius, an academic and researcher at the Center for Urban Economic Development who studies the changing nature of work, says a simple calculus — more temporary workers being added to the same fixed warehouse space — raises the risk of safety issues, Covid-19 spread, and burnout (and Amazon has been less than transparent about these issues throughout the last six months). The rhetoric of the heroism of essential workers, including warehouse and retail workers, is ringing hollow at this point, she says.
“In the end, you have to throw more workers at the problem of e-commerce fulfillment, and they’ve raised very serious issues about health and safety,” she says. “There’s lots of physical and mental strain on workers’ bodies when they’re handling work that quickly. Warehouse workers, and increasingly retail workers as more companies adopt ship-from-store e-commerce fulfillment strategies, help the rest of us practice social distancing, but this dynamic is possible only because workers are risking their own well-being, and not necessarily by choice.”
According to a survey of industry operators conducted by Flexe, 65 percent said labor shortages were impacting their business and 47 percent have increased wages to be more competitive. Amazon’s and Walmart’s big announcements earlier this year that they would add hundreds of thousands of jobs and pay a few extra dollars an hour have rippled through an industry seeking greater capacity. And it’s not just for the winter surge — typically the season when workers face weeks with additional overtime and higher-than-normal rates of on-the-job injuries and stress — but for next year.
E-commerce is racing to adjust to unforeseen circumstances, with a predicted “shipageddon” this year leading analysts to suggest hot items will disappear early and companies will plead with consumers to order as early as possible. In China this year, the Singles Day holiday netted $75 billion in sales, nearly double the amount last year, which led to packages being piled on the ground near mailboxes and delivery sites. China, generally speaking, has a robust delivery infrastructure. The sector is clearly dealing with the downsides of unexpected demand — not painful contraction — often turning to temporary employees and hiring agencies.
“Honestly, I don’t know how Amazon is going to do it this year,” says Rogers. “That’s why they shifted Prime Day to October. The transportation part of this will be really tough. They’ll do whatever they can and everyone else will try to keep up.”
Shipping is not the only concern. There’s also the problem of returns, which Rogers says are “two to three times more for e-commerce purchases versus brick and mortar, depending on the product.” That adds up: “There will be like an additional billion dollars of returns this year, and they’re going to need to process this stuff. There’s a wave coming, and I’m very interested to see what happens between late November and early January.”
It may seem counterintuitive that in the midst of severe economic shock, huge corporations such as Amazon and Walmart would struggle to find workers. But the labor supply situation is incredibly unorthodox, says Chamberlain. There’s a significant compositional shift away from traditional work — say, a job at the counter at Sephora — and toward warehouses and delivery gigs. And many workers are simply sitting this season out; whether they’re worried about getting sick, the added pressure of handling child care, or waiting out a furlough, many people are simply in limbo, Chamberlain has found.
Monga points to two indexes of consumer activity and attitudes as red lights for retail: the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index (down nearly 20 percent since last December) and the savings rate (currently double the typical 6 to 8 percent range). Americans are, overall, wary and worried, and even those who are employed are holding onto a portion of their potential disposable income. The few bright spots, such as outdoor retailer REI, can’t overcome sharp drops in clothing purchases. This dismal holiday hiring season will just lock in structural shifts decimating retail, especially as warehouse operators adopt robotics and other means of increasing efficiency.
“Automation and rising productivity are ways to do more with less,” says Chamberlain. “By far the largest cost in production is people. Wages are high. If sales double in traditional retail, you may need to double your number of workers. But for Amazon and Walmart, they may need just 10 percent more people to handle that rush.”
Rogers points to a newly reopened Macy’s facility in Littleton, Colorado, as the future of retail employment. This new “omni service center” features packing, delivery, and pickup services, but the so-called dark store isn’t open for the public to enter and shop. In effect, Macy’s is hiring and staffing for the holidays, but the jobs it’s offering are becoming indistinguishable from the gigs found in the general logistics and warehouse industry. Even many of the seasonal retail gigs that remain are starting to look more and more like those found in warehouses.
“They’re doing the same job as an Amazon picker, but in a store,” says Gutelius. “The lines are getting very blurry.”


Advent, explained

Most Christmas customs in the US share two characteristics .
First , it ’ s usually hard to pin down their origins to a single source .
And second , their roots almost always reach back to religious custom — Christmas being the second most important feast day ( behind Easter ) on the Christian calendar — but have since been adapted and , in some cases , scrubbed of religious content to make them more broadly palatable .
The celebration of Advent , whether with wreaths in church or calendars at home , is among these customs .
On @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one of the major seasons celebrated by most Christian churches in the Western tradition : Roman Catholics , Anglicans , Episcopalians , Lutherans , and many additional Protestant churches mark the roughly month-long period with special observance .
But the word Advent comes from the Latin word for “ arrival ” — adventus — which means non-Christians can celebrate it simply as a fun countdown to Christmas .
In that respect , it ’ s also become a marketing opportunity for retailers , mostly through Advent calendars , which have been around since @ @ @ @ @ @ @ grown steadily more , shall we say , creative .
Most modern Advent calendars don ’ t technically cover the season of Advent Most Advent calendars start on December 1 .
But the actual first day of the Advent season changes every year .
In 2020 , that day is November 29 .
In 2021 , it will be November 28 .
The final day is the same every year : December 24 , Christmas Eve — though many calendars run through Christmas Day .
The reason for the shifting start date is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ churches in the Western tradition ( as opposed to Eastern Orthodox churches , which keep a different calendar ) , the season of Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and is celebrated on each successive Sunday leading up to Christmas .
There are always four Sundays during Advent prior to Christmas , but Christmas could be any day of the week — which means the distance between the fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas Day varies .
So the length of the season shifts from year to year : In 2016 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which means the season stretched over a total of 28 days .
Last year , it was 24 days long .
This year , it ’ s 26 days long .
Advent calendars , though , are more consistent .
They ’ re all set up for a 24- or 25-day season , beginning December 1 and ending on Christmas Eve or , sometimes , Christmas Day .
The reason for this is practical : Since the length of the Advent season changes from year to year , it ’ s easier to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a calendar that can be reproduced or reused every season .
And Advent calendars are reused all the time .
When I was growing up , the Advent calendar in our house had a picture of Mary , Joseph , and the baby Jesus in the manger , with little windows that we opened and read aloud — each contained a verse from the Christmas story .
Other people had Advent calendars that held a piece of chocolate to be eaten each day .
Since the mid-19th century , Advent calendars have morphed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in one form or another ) were adapted some time in the 19th century by German Lutherans as a way to mark the days of the season leading up to Christmas .
By the early 20th century , calendars were being manufactured and published in Germany , aimed at delighting kids during the holidays .
In a chilling development , when Nazi Germany attempted to change Christmas from a religious holiday to an occasion to praise the fatherland ( Jesus ’ s Jewish origins being troublesome for Nazis ’ racist ideology ) , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a way of inculcating loyalty into children .
In 1943 , a full-color calendar was produced by the Third Reich for distribution to German mothers ; it included , among other things , designs that incorporated swastikas and other Nazi symbols .
On one day , it has pictures that appear to tell the traditional Christmas story — Mary , Joseph , and the baby Jesus in the manger — but the text that accompanies the images is about a woodcutter , a soldier , and a king who get lost in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ baby who has wise words for them .
Following the war , with cardboard no longer rationed , Christian-themed Advent calendars made their way stateside thanks to the boom in production and the GIs who sent them home to their families .
They got a boost in popularity when Newsweek published a photograph of President Dwight D. Eisenhower ’ s grandchildren with an Advent calendar in 1953 : Advent calendars have remained popular in the years since , often marketed with the suggestion that they help children count down the days to Christmas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their parents every day about how many days are left until they can open presents .
Sometimes pockets in the calendar can be filled by parents with toys or treats , small gifts to satiate the excited child .
( One can detect some commonality between this and traditions around gift giving during Hanukkah . )
As such , Advent calendars aimed at children abound .
Parents can help children put together a charm bracelet , or let them discover the art of Norman Rockwell .
There are chocolate Advent calendars in all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with puffy , soft shapes that slowly form a nativity scene or depict the adventures of Olaf from Frozen .
There ’ s a Funko Fortnite Advent calendar , a Lego Star Wars Advent calendar , and a whole bunch of Playmobil Advent Calendars .
A specifically Christian variation called a “ Jesse Tree ” combines the Christmas tree with an Advent calendar , taking its cues from Isaiah 11:1 , which many Christians take to be a prophecy about Jesus : “ There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ roots will bear fruit.
” Jesse was the father of King David , who is said to be an ancestor of Jesus , and a tree depicting this lineage was often the subject of stained-glass windows in churches .
Ornaments with symbols that tell the Christmas story are placed on the Jesse Tree each day until , by Christmas , it ’ s full .
Participants can buy all kinds of Jesse Tree ornament sets , from rustic wooden ones to whimsical felt ones , or just make their own .
While Advent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( and the Third Reich ) for much of their history , they ’ ve now expanded to include non-ideological and adult audiences .
Today , Advent calendars are available for virtually any taste , interest , or price point .
Many Advent calendars serve as a way for brands to deliver 24 samples of their products into the hands of potential customers — not a bad marketing move in a month typically associated with spending money .
If customers like the sample , the reasoning goes , they ’ ll be inclined @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Christmas money .
( This is in keeping with custom : The first chocolate Advent calendar was produced by Cadbury in 1958 . )
Among the Advent calendars aimed at disposable-income-laden adults , there are calendars for Godiva chocolate , Diptyque scents , Sephora beauty products , Bonne Maman jams and honeys , and dog treats .
Pop culture fans can indulge their love of TV shows like Friends or The Office or films including The Nightmare Before Christmas or the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe ( by way of Funko Pops ) .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ themed products : jerky , whisky , gin , scotch , rum , craft beer , cheese , and candles .
Advent calendars don ’ t necessarily have to be physical objects , however .
Music lovers can download a musical Advent calendar app from Naxos , and web design geeks can indulge in the digital 24 Ways Advent calendar , which dispenses design and coding advice over the 24 days leading up to Christmas .
Some towns — like the English city of Henley-on-Thames — create living Advent calendars .
In a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ought to adopt immediately , some Nordic countries traditionally show an Advent television series , called a Julekalender , beginning on December 1 and running until Christmas Eve — think of it as a limited miniseries .
The tradition started on radio in 1957 and first ran on Swedish television in 1960 .
Sometimes the show ties into a paper calendar that can be purchased in stores , and each day what ’ s behind the day ’ s calendar flap ties into the show .
( An American radio show called The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1930s and early 1940s , and was similarly arranged — six times a week from Thanksgiving to Christmas . )
But though Advent customs differ , they all circle back to adventus : the anticipation of something .
Advent calendars are designed for anticipating the arrival of Christmas Day , in both its explicitly religious and more secularized versions .
The roots of Advent celebration , though , predate 19th-century Germany — stretching way back into the traditional Western Christian tradition , before Advent calendars were invented .
That celebration has its own @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and it ’ s still carried out in churches all over the world to this day .
Advent ’ s roots in Christian tradition persist to this day Nobody seems to know precisely when the Western Christian church started marking Advent as a season on its calendar .
But it seems to have popped up early in church history , and has stayed remarkably stable since about the Middle Ages .
The easiest way to understand the Christian church ’ s calendar is as a sort of live immersive theater , designed by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ every year from Christmas ( birth ) to Easter ( resurrection ) , with readings in traditional churches that revisit stories from the gospels each year during that time .
Advent — adventus — is the part of the calendar that ’ s all about anticipation .
In Christian teaching , there are two events being anticipated .
Part of the observance of Advent , celebrated for the four Sundays before Christmas , is reenacting the centuries of anticipation of the birth of Jesus as written about by prophets like Isaiah in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during the season have lines recalling this waiting period , such as “ O Holy Night ” ( “ Long lay the world in sin and error pining / ’ Til he appeared and the soul felt its worth ” ) .
That ’ s also why the early parts of Handel ’ s Messiah quote the prophet Isaiah before they get to the more familiar Christmas parts : The lyrics for “ Comfort Ye My People ” and “ Every Valley Shall Be Exalted , ” for instance , correspond directly to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ person might hear in a church pew during Advent .
But Christian theology also contains a belief that at the end of days , Jesus will return to set things right in the world , erasing death and suffering — a concept usually called the Second Coming .
So in addition to being about the anticipation of Jesus ’ s birth ( the first coming ) , Advent is also set aside as a time of quietness and austerity , meant to keep Christians from glossing over the brokenness of the world and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Coming .
“ Joy to the World ” — which , in traditional Christian practice , should only be sung at the conclusion of Advent — contains a verse summarizing this side of the celebration : “ No more let sins and sorrows grow / Nor thorns infest the ground / He comes to make His blessings flow / Far as the curse is found.
” Religious observance of Advent comes with its own set of symbols In churches that celebrate Advent , the most common factor across denominations is the Advent wreath @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ages .
It ’ s like a normal Christmas wreath , but presented horizontally , often on a podium at the front of the church ( though people often have them in their homes as well ) .
There are typically candleholders for tapers in the wreath .
The colors vary slightly from denomination to denomination , but the wreath always has four candles on it — typically three dark purple or blue , one rose-colored — and a white candle in the middle to light on Christmas Eve .
On each of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ corresponding number of candles are lit : one on the first Sunday , two on the second , and so on .
If there ’ s a rose candle ( which is meant to symbolize joy ) , it ’ s lit on the third Sunday , which is around the midpoint of Advent , a time to celebrate that the waiting is nearing its close .
In keeping with the theme of waiting and remembering , Advent is also traditionally marked with a fast , similar to the Lenten fast that many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ marginally observant ) practice during the 40 days before Easter .
Advent is shorter than Lent , and the fast is less widely practiced , but generally people choose to give up something — a type of food , a practice or habit , and , in many recent years , social media — in order to focus on prayer and preparation for the celebration of Christmas .
Additionally , some churches change the colors of the cloths and linens used in the sanctuary during Sunday services — often to purple .
Churches @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , instead opting for Advent hymns , the most popular of which is probably “ O Come , O Come , Emmanuel , ” a translation of a Latin hymn .
Some churches make a practice of giving away more money or participating in other community-wide practices during the season of Advent .
( One newish example is the Advent Conspiracy , started by a loose affiliation of mostly evangelical churches in 2006 to combat hyperconsumerism and help fund clean water initiatives . )
As with pretty much every Christmas custom , though @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Christians who celebrate it — it has expanded to include everyone who takes part in the holiday , whatever meaning they take from it .
Every Advent observance , regardless of whether it includes a religious element , touches on a need to have a bit of beauty each day during the season .
And it ’ s all in anticipation of future joy .

Most Christmas customs in the US share two characteristics. First, it’s usually hard to pin down their origins to a single source. And second, their roots almost always reach back to religious custom — Christmas being the second most important feast day (behind Easter) on the Christian calendar — but have since been adapted and, in some cases, scrubbed of religious content to make them more broadly palatable.
The celebration of Advent, whether with wreaths in church or calendars at home, is among these customs. On the one hand, it’s one of the major seasons celebrated by most Christian churches in the Western tradition: Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and many additional Protestant churches mark the roughly month-long period with special observance.
But the word Advent comes from the Latin word for “arrival” — adventus — which means non-Christians can celebrate it simply as a fun countdown to Christmas. In that respect, it’s also become a marketing opportunity for retailers, mostly through Advent calendars, which have been around since the 19th century and have of late grown steadily more, shall we say, creative.
Most modern Advent calendars don’t technically cover the season of Advent
Most Advent calendars start on December 1. But the actual first day of the Advent season changes every year. In 2020, that day is November 29. In 2021, it will be November 28. The final day is the same every year: December 24, Christmas Eve — though many calendars run through Christmas Day.
The reason for the shifting start date is somewhat straightforward. As celebrated by Christian churches in the Western tradition (as opposed to Eastern Orthodox churches, which keep a different calendar), the season of Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and is celebrated on each successive Sunday leading up to Christmas.
There are always four Sundays during Advent prior to Christmas, but Christmas could be any day of the week — which means the distance between the fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas Day varies. So the length of the season shifts from year to year: In 2016, Christmas fell on a Sunday, which means the season stretched over a total of 28 days. Last year, it was 24 days long. This year, it’s 26 days long.
Advent calendars, though, are more consistent. They’re all set up for a 24- or 25-day season, beginning December 1 and ending on Christmas Eve or, sometimes, Christmas Day. The reason for this is practical: Since the length of the Advent season changes from year to year, it’s easier to pick a fixed number of days for a calendar that can be reproduced or reused every season.
And Advent calendars are reused all the time. When I was growing up, the Advent calendar in our house had a picture of Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus in the manger, with little windows that we opened and read aloud — each contained a verse from the Christmas story. Other people had Advent calendars that held a piece of chocolate to be eaten each day.
Since the mid-19th century, Advent calendars have morphed to fit their time
Advent calendars (in one form or another) were adapted some time in the 19th century by German Lutherans as a way to mark the days of the season leading up to Christmas. By the early 20th century, calendars were being manufactured and published in Germany, aimed at delighting kids during the holidays.
In a chilling development, when Nazi Germany attempted to change Christmas from a religious holiday to an occasion to praise the fatherland (Jesus’s Jewish origins being troublesome for Nazis’ racist ideology), it latched onto the Advent calendar as a way of inculcating loyalty into children. In 1943, a full-color calendar was produced by the Third Reich for distribution to German mothers; it included, among other things, designs that incorporated swastikas and other Nazi symbols. On one day, it has pictures that appear to tell the traditional Christmas story — Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus in the manger — but the text that accompanies the images is about a woodcutter, a soldier, and a king who get lost in the woods and encounter a woman with a baby who has wise words for them.
Following the war, with cardboard no longer rationed, Christian-themed Advent calendars made their way stateside thanks to the boom in production and the GIs who sent them home to their families. They got a boost in popularity when Newsweek published a photograph of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s grandchildren with an Advent calendar in 1953:
Advent calendars have remained popular in the years since, often marketed with the suggestion that they help children count down the days to Christmas, presumably to keep them from bugging their parents every day about how many days are left until they can open presents. Sometimes pockets in the calendar can be filled by parents with toys or treats, small gifts to satiate the excited child. (One can detect some commonality between this and traditions around gift giving during Hanukkah.)
As such, Advent calendars aimed at children abound. Parents can help children put together a charm bracelet, or let them discover the art of Norman Rockwell. There are chocolate Advent calendars in all shapes and sizes. There are calendars with puffy, soft shapes that slowly form a nativity scene or depict the adventures of Olaf from Frozen. There’s a Funko Fortnite Advent calendar, a Lego Star Wars Advent calendar, and a whole bunch of Playmobil Advent Calendars.
A specifically Christian variation called a “Jesse Tree” combines the Christmas tree with an Advent calendar, taking its cues from Isaiah 11:1, which many Christians take to be a prophecy about Jesus: “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.” Jesse was the father of King David, who is said to be an ancestor of Jesus, and a tree depicting this lineage was often the subject of stained-glass windows in churches. Ornaments with symbols that tell the Christmas story are placed on the Jesse Tree each day until, by Christmas, it’s full. Participants can buy all kinds of Jesse Tree ornament sets, from rustic wooden ones to whimsical felt ones, or just make their own.
While Advent calendars were mainly used by religious families (and the Third Reich) for much of their history, they’ve now expanded to include non-ideological and adult audiences. Today, Advent calendars are available for virtually any taste, interest, or price point. Many Advent calendars serve as a way for brands to deliver 24 samples of their products into the hands of potential customers — not a bad marketing move in a month typically associated with spending money. If customers like the sample, the reasoning goes, they’ll be inclined to buy the full-size version with their Christmas money. (This is in keeping with custom: The first chocolate Advent calendar was produced by Cadbury in 1958.)
Among the Advent calendars aimed at disposable-income-laden adults, there are calendars for Godiva chocolate, Diptyque scents, Sephora beauty products, Bonne Maman jams and honeys, and dog treats. Pop culture fans can indulge their love of TV shows like Friends or The Office or films including The Nightmare Before Christmas or the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe (by way of Funko Pops). Or you can sample a variety of themed products: jerky, whisky, gin, scotch, rum, craft beer, cheese, and candles.
Advent calendars don’t necessarily have to be physical objects, however. Music lovers can download a musical Advent calendar app from Naxos, and web design geeks can indulge in the digital 24 Ways Advent calendar, which dispenses design and coding advice over the 24 days leading up to Christmas. Some towns — like the English city of Henley-on-Thames — create living Advent calendars.
In a very cool custom I think the US ought to adopt immediately, some Nordic countries traditionally show an Advent television series, called a Julekalender, beginning on December 1 and running until Christmas Eve — think of it as a limited miniseries. The tradition started on radio in 1957 and first ran on Swedish television in 1960. Sometimes the show ties into a paper calendar that can be purchased in stores, and each day what’s behind the day’s calendar flap ties into the show. (An American radio show called The Cinnamon Bear was broadcast in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and was similarly arranged — six times a week from Thanksgiving to Christmas.)
But though Advent customs differ, they all circle back to adventus: the anticipation of something. Advent calendars are designed for anticipating the arrival of Christmas Day, in both its explicitly religious and more secularized versions.
The roots of Advent celebration, though, predate 19th-century Germany — stretching way back into the traditional Western Christian tradition, before Advent calendars were invented. That celebration has its own symbolism tied to the Christian calendar, and it’s still carried out in churches all over the world to this day.
Advent’s roots in Christian tradition persist to this day
Nobody seems to know precisely when the Western Christian church started marking Advent as a season on its calendar. But it seems to have popped up early in church history, and has stayed remarkably stable since about the Middle Ages.
The easiest way to understand the Christian church’s calendar is as a sort of live immersive theater, designed by tradition to reenact the life of Jesus every year from Christmas (birth) to Easter (resurrection), with readings in traditional churches that revisit stories from the gospels each year during that time. Advent — adventus — is the part of the calendar that’s all about anticipation. In Christian teaching, there are two events being anticipated.
Part of the observance of Advent, celebrated for the four Sundays before Christmas, is reenacting the centuries of anticipation of the birth of Jesus as written about by prophets like Isaiah in the Old Testament. Many songs traditionally sung during the season have lines recalling this waiting period, such as “O Holy Night” (“Long lay the world in sin and error pining / ’Til he appeared and the soul felt its worth”). That’s also why the early parts of Handel’s Messiah quote the prophet Isaiah before they get to the more familiar Christmas parts: The lyrics for “Comfort Ye My People” and “Every Valley Shall Be Exalted,” for instance, correspond directly to the readings from Isaiah 40 that a person might hear in a church pew during Advent.
But Christian theology also contains a belief that at the end of days, Jesus will return to set things right in the world, erasing death and suffering — a concept usually called the Second Coming. So in addition to being about the anticipation of Jesus’s birth (the first coming), Advent is also set aside as a time of quietness and austerity, meant to keep Christians from glossing over the brokenness of the world and to encourage them to anticipate the Second Coming.
“Joy to the World” — which, in traditional Christian practice, should only be sung at the conclusion of Advent — contains a verse summarizing this side of the celebration: “No more let sins and sorrows grow / Nor thorns infest the ground / He comes to make His blessings flow / Far as the curse is found.”
Religious observance of Advent comes with its own set of symbols
In churches that celebrate Advent, the most common factor across denominations is the Advent wreath, which was adopted around the Middle Ages. It’s like a normal Christmas wreath, but presented horizontally, often on a podium at the front of the church (though people often have them in their homes as well). There are typically candleholders for tapers in the wreath. The colors vary slightly from denomination to denomination, but the wreath always has four candles on it — typically three dark purple or blue, one rose-colored — and a white candle in the middle to light on Christmas Eve.
On each of the four Sundays of Advent, the corresponding number of candles are lit: one on the first Sunday, two on the second, and so on. If there’s a rose candle (which is meant to symbolize joy), it’s lit on the third Sunday, which is around the midpoint of Advent, a time to celebrate that the waiting is nearing its close.
In keeping with the theme of waiting and remembering, Advent is also traditionally marked with a fast, similar to the Lenten fast that many people (even those who are only marginally observant) practice during the 40 days before Easter. Advent is shorter than Lent, and the fast is less widely practiced, but generally people choose to give up something — a type of food, a practice or habit, and, in many recent years, social media — in order to focus on prayer and preparation for the celebration of Christmas.
Additionally, some churches change the colors of the cloths and linens used in the sanctuary during Sunday services — often to purple. Churches hold off on singing jubilant Christmas songs, instead opting for Advent hymns, the most popular of which is probably “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” a translation of a Latin hymn. Some churches make a practice of giving away more money or participating in other community-wide practices during the season of Advent. (One newish example is the Advent Conspiracy, started by a loose affiliation of mostly evangelical churches in 2006 to combat hyperconsumerism and help fund clean water initiatives.)
As with pretty much every Christmas custom, though, Advent doesn’t just belong to Christians who celebrate it — it has expanded to include everyone who takes part in the holiday, whatever meaning they take from it. Every Advent observance, regardless of whether it includes a religious element, touches on a need to have a bit of beauty each day during the season. And it’s all in anticipation of future joy.