On Thanksgiving Day, many stores will open in anticipation of Black Friday. Consumers will line up around dinnertime; they will have chosen to be there. The employees won’t.Last year, my mother, a saleswoman, worked on Black Friday, got home late, and woke up to return to work that Saturday. I didn’t sit down to have dinner with her on Thanksgiving because she had to go to bed early to be prepared for the long sales day ahead of her.

At least last year, I got to have lunch with her.

This year, many stores – including CVS, Best Buy, Costco, JCPenney, Macy’s, Staples and Wal-Mart – will open on Thanksgiving Day.

My mom has to work from 7pm on Thanksgiving Night – to prepare for the store’s opening at 8 – and get home sometime after 1 am to return to work at 8 am.

Employees from big chain stores spent a holiday of being thankful hearing the cha-chink of cash registers, listening to customers screaming about blockbusters and sales and limited quantities. And for what? For sales that could have waited until Friday morning.

Stores wouldn’t open if they knew they weren’t going to sell, but isn’t the commercialization of a holiday that’s supposed to be spent being thankful for what we have a bit ironic?

I can understand Black Friday and I can understand wanting to buy great gifts and save money, but I can’t begin to understand why materialistic things have such a profound effect on the choices we make when it comes to our families.

My extended family does not go out on Thanksgiving Day – not even to CVS if we forgot to get milk for the apple pie. It’s a rule, you make do with what you have and if you need anything, you wait until 5 am when stores open for Black Friday and wait out the ridiculous lines.

Thanksgiving is for family, and there’s no other way I’d want it to be.

But this year, it will be different. This year, my mom won’t eat the dinner but she will hear people complain all night long as they bargain prices.

Traditionally, stores close early on Christmas Eve for last minute shoppers. Last year, Target was opened until 9 P.M, while Toys “R” Us, waiting for procrastinating parents, closed at 10 PM.

It seems as if every year, major stores push closing times further back. This year, despite ever growing competition with online shopping, the only option if someone needs to buy a last-minute gift is to actually go out.

What will happen to employees when stores decide that remaining open, on Christmas Day, is the best idea they can have?

I can think of a few people who won’t be happy.