Have you ever had to adjust the meal time for your holiday gathering or have an empty spot at the table because a family member had to work? We all have. And when the family member who has to work is a soldier or a health care professional or a first responder or works somewhere like a gas station or pharmacy that really needs to be open on the holiday, we can understand. We don’t like it, but we can understand.

But if one of my family members had to miss family time just to satisfy the greed and thoughtless whim of someone whose life is so miserable they have to shop ON THE HOLIDAY, I’d be angry.

Bargains? Are you kidding me? I’ve looked at some of the sale previews. And it’s not worth it. A cheap model of a GPS? A crappy digital camera for half price? A TV that’s a last year’s model of a brand nobody ever heard of? The stores have a few of these “good” items ready for the unethical bait and switch scheme. They want to lure you into the stores with promises of incredible bargains. They want to see snatch and grab and people fighting for stuff and pushing on doors. And yet if you really look at what they are offering, the merchandise is still not worth the price, even at the sale price—IF you can get it at the sale price. Who really wants a bathrobe with a Christmas tree embroidered on the pocket? And who needs it so desperately that they can’t wait until the store opens on FRIDAY?

Please join me in sending a message to retailers this Thanksgiving. Let’s tell them loud and clear that we have lives and that our family times are worth more than their cheap crap. The best way to send the message is this: DO NOT GO SHOPPING ON THURSDAY. And no, I’m not just saying that so you will stay home and leave more “bargains” for me. I’m serious. When Megamart and Dartboard open their doors Thursday night, let’s make them hear nothing but crickets. Let’s have the managers checking their watches and wondering if they’ve got the time right.

Let’s tell them that Thanksgiving is an important holiday all on its own. It’s not just a big meal before a shopping marathon. And if you’ve cooked the Thanksgiving dinner, tell the shoppers in the family you don’t appreciate it when they eat and run just to get to the mall first before somebody else gets the last one of JC Penney’s ugly, crappy snow globes.

Thanksgiving is about family and being together without the commercialism of gifts. And the retailers hate it because they can’t get a piece of it. So let’s ALL tell them: “Hands off Thanksgiving. We’ll shop Friday (at a reasonable hour). But on Thursday, we are going to hold hands around the table, give every family member an opportunity to say what they are thankful for, eat turkey and dressing and pie, and play board games, and watch football and old movies, maybe rake a few leaves into a pile for the kids to play in or toss the football around in the yard, re-tell favorite family stories, and NOT GO SHOPPING!”

Please share this message with everyone you know. The more people who join us in sending this message to retailers, the fewer empty chairs we will have at our holiday tables.