Suitcases followed high heels down K Street as Thanksgiving approached Washington. Megabuses rumbled through Chinatown, and Metro riders packed the Blue Line in the direction of home, by way of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Work could wait, and it would. On Thanksgiving, residents and experts say, the priority is a dinner table surrounded by family. Despite the intense commercialization of most other American holidays, Thanksgiving remains something else: a time for family, friends and thanks.
“It’s always a day when my family comes together,” said Lizzie Redman, 25, rolling a black suitcase and thinking of the turkey gumbo waiting at her parents’ home in Louisiana. “There’s nothing like a home-cooked meal. It wouldn’t be the same without them.”
| Turkey day cards aren’t big sellers | |
| Rank/Holiday | Numbers of Cards sent |
| 1. Christmas | 1.5 billion (including boxed and individual cards |
| 2. Valentine’s Day | 141 million (not including classroom valentines) |
| 3. Mothers’s Day | 139 million |
| 4. Father’s Day | 94 million |
| 5. Easter | 60 million |
| 6. Halloween | 23 million |
| 7. Thanksgiving | 17 million |
| 8. St. Patrick’s Day | 7 million |
| Source: Hallmark | |
About 1.1 million passengers heading to and from home will fly through Washington Dulles International and Reagan National airports between Nov. 19 and Nov. 29, up 100,000 from last year, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority projected. While Wednesday remained the busiest travel day — Reagan National would see more than 70,000 passengers — the Friday before Thanksgiving made its own name with 67,000 travelers.
“We’ve seen in the past few years that people are really spreading out their Thanksgiving holidays. It’s really a week, week-and-a-half of travel rather than one big spike on Wednesday,” airports spokeswoman Courtney Mickalonis said. “Wednesday is still a busy day for us, but we have other busy days as well.”
Loudoun County became the first area school district to give its students and teachers the entire week off, while every other school system but D.C. sent its kids home by early Wednesday afternoon.
In the stores, shelves of holiday decorations skipped from Halloween to Christmas. There were no Thanksgiving costumes to buy, no celebratory trees. There are Thanksgiving cards, but Hallmark can barely sell them: Americans send 17 million cards for Thanksgiving, fewer than on any other major holiday but St. Patrick’s Day. About 1.5 billion cards are mailed each Christmas.
Not that consumerism hasn’t crept up: Barnes & Noble declared “Black Friday Week,” and Sears, Walmart and Kmart will be open before the turkey is slid into the oven.
“I would hate Thanksgiving to turn into Christmas and have all that trumpeting from afar with material gifts,” said C. Margaret Hall, a Georgetown University sociology professor who researches the family. “At the moment, it seems just a pure way to socialize and enjoy company.”
Siblings can “tweet” at each other or write on Facebook walls, and cousins can reconnect through webcam, but Hall said Thanksgiving will remain a family-focused holiday because “just seeing people face-to-face seems to be the big novelty that doesn’t go away. We have all these ways to communicate with each other that are modern and high-tech, but it doesn’t replace the warmth of face-to-face communication.”
More people fly home on Thanksgiving than on Christmas — in fact, the airports authority doesn’t even bother with travel estimates for any other holiday.
Brian Wansink, director of Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab, said comfort food that sticks to formula year after year can carry memories: “It might have to do with security, and safety, and growing up and having hot meals with the family. You feel like other people do their thing, but this is what my family eats every Thanksgiving.
“After all, there are few things as sad as eating Thanksgiving dinner alone,” Wansink said.
Dan Sheffield, 46, said he would be working the overnight shift for Prince George’s County police before Thanksgiving. He couldn’t get out of town, and he probably wouldn’t pull together a turkey dinner, but that was all right: He was happy to sleep in and watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV with his girlfriend, Irlene Santos.
“We’re really looking forward to some time together,” said Santos, 36. “We’re not doing anything special. We’re just grateful we have each other.”
