Lynnie, I totally agree with you that stores should not be open on Thanksgiving. To me the only stores that should be open are pharmacies with a pharmacist working. For a long time I would boycott K-Mart because they were the first retail store to be open on Thanksgiving. It was to beat the rush of Black Friday. Makes me crazy. They would say that not everyone is Christian so people want something or somewhere to go. But Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July are 2 American Holidays totally unrelated to religion. (There are others I would include but will stop at those 2.)
My DH & DD both LOVE Christmas - so our tree goes up the day after Thanksgiving and is up until at least New Year's Day, And there is a music channel called "Sounds of the Season" which starts Christmas music on November 1st and yes it is on at our house from 11/1 to when it stops some time in January. At first I was kind of crazy but now look at it as additional thoughts of the reason for the season.