The largest retail group in the country says it expects consumers to spend more this holiday season, but the growth in sales will be slower than last year.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) said its 2024 forecast shows winter holiday spending is expected to grow between 2.5% and 3.5% over 2023.
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This year, the Christmas spirit knocked at my door two weeks before Thanksgiving, smiled coyly, and settled in like some stray feline who’s struck gold with a warm hearth and a bowl of Friskies Seafood Sensations. Never before had this spirit arrived so early and so unexpectedly.
It started with a review copy of Faith Moore’s Christmas Karol, a novel that copycats the plot of the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol. Here we meet Karol Charles, an attorney obsessed with success and money to the detriment of her husband, her two young children, her sister, and her employees. Like Ebenezer Scrooge, Karol is visited on Christmas Eve first by her deceased partner and then by three spirits of the season. Most of the action takes place in a hospital, a stroke of inspiration on Moore’s part as hospitals serve both the dying and the recovering. When we meet her, Karol’s soul is most decidedly on the critical list.
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Anyone still wondering why voters trust former President Trump more than President Biden on the economy should read what the White House posted on X about inflation last week: “Ahead of the holiday season, costs are down for everything from airline tickets and car rentals to toys and TVs.” Biden and his underlings continue to believe public disapproval of his disastrous economic performance can be improved with happy talk and cherry picked statistics. It assumes Americans can’t remember how much less the cost of living was when Biden was elected.
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Thanksgiving dinner shoppers will get a bit of a break in the pocketbook this year.
Illinois shoppers participating in the annual American Farm Bureau Federation’s (AFBF) Thanksgiving Cost Survey reported the average cost of a traditional Thanksgiving meal is down slightly compared to last year.
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Thanksgiving, according to Britannica.com, has come to “has come to symbolize intercultural peace, America’s opportunity for newcomers, and the sanctity of home and family.” This definition captures the ideals, more relevant than ever, of one of America’s favorite holidays. But these ideals are threatened, because America’s mainstream institutions have either rejected them, or have created an environment where they are no longer possible.
This is immediately obvious with the “woke” doctrine of race-based oppressor and oppressed, now promoted by academia, the media, entertainers, politicians, and corporations. Maybe the fellowship of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians is mostly fable, cruelly debunked by history.
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Both houses of Congress have adjourned for two weeks until after Thanksgiving even as major legislative work that must be completed before the year ends remains unfinished.
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Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful to God for the many blessings in our lives.
This year, however, food for Thanksgiving dinner is costlier, the price of gasoline is higher, crime is rampant, the Southern border is uncontrolled, and many of our schools are a disaster.
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Americans will pay higher prices for a range of goods and services for the Thanksgiving holiday and Black Friday shopping this year, and it looks like things may only get worse as we draw nearer to Christmas.
Those driving for the holidays and of course those preparing the Thanksgiving meal will pay the price this year. Federal inflation data from the Commerce Department shows energy costs have risen 17.6% in the past year, and overall food costs increased 10.9% in the same time.
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Thanksgiving dinner will cost 20% more this year compared to last year, according to a Farm Bureau survey published Wednesday, with the market signaling record-high prices for the second year in a row.
The average cost to feed 10 people for Thanksgiving will be $64.05, or under $6.50 per person, the Farm Bureau said. This is a $10.74 or 20% cost increase from 2021’s average of $53.31, which was also a record high at the time, according to historical data.
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The average national gasoline price during Thanksgiving will be at its highest level since 2012, according to estimates from the fuel-saving app GasBuddy.
Thanksgiving gas prices on average will hit $3.68 per gallon, almost 30 cents higher than they were during 2021 and more than 20 cents higher than the previous record of $3.44 a gallon set in 2012, according to a GasBuddy news release. Gas prices have reached record highs in 2022 due to increased post-pandemic demand, fuel-refining constraints and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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While most Americans are legally traveling to visit relatives and celebrate during the holidays, Border Patrol agents are being inundated with illegal travelers arriving at the U.S. southern border from more than 100 different countries this year.
Border Patrol agents assigned to Del Rio Sector in Texas, for example, arrested people coming from African and former Soviet countries over Thanksgiving, as well as known sex offenders from Mexico and Nicaragua.
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While most Americans were legally traveling to visit relatives and celebrate Thanksgiving enjoying a few days off of work, Border Patrol agents were hard at work in Texas inundated with illegal travelers arriving at the U.S. southern border.
Border Patrol agents assigned to Del Rio Sector in Texas, for example, arrested people coming from African and former Soviet countries over Thanksgiving, as well as known sex offenders from Mexico and Nicaragua.
From Nov. 23-27, agents apprehended six Eritrean nationals who traveled from the northeast African country to the southern U.S. after the Biden administration halted immigration laws established by Congress.
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Thanksgiving means a lot more than turkey, cranberries, and pumpkin pie.
More than 401 years ago, courageous pilgrims set sail across the Atlantic Ocean on the Mayflower to start a new life in North America. They arrived at Plymouth on November 11, 1620, after a dangerous crossing and founded a new settlement where they could practice their faith freely.
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As Americans prepare for Thanksgiving this year, traveling and cooking a family dinner will be significantly more expensive.
Inflation has increased by more than 6.2% this year, according to the consumer price index (CPI), representing the highest rate of price hikes in nearly 31 years.
In January 2021, before Biden “took over the presidency, annual inflation was at a stable 1.4 percent,” Americans for Tax Reform notes. “While inflation has already hit American families hard, President [Joe] Biden is pushing policies which would make this problem even worse.”
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“Meleagris Gallopavo Day” is a bit of a mouthful. Which may be why this Thanksgiving, most people will opt for the less ornithologically precise “Turkey Day.”
And just as turkey is a versatile meat – think of those leftover options! – so too is the word “turkey,” which can refer to everything from the bird itself to a populous Eurasian country to movie flops.
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Two University of Oregon alumni spearheaded an hour-long discussion Thursday titled “Thanks, But No Thanks-giving: Decolonizing an American Holiday.”
The event description promoted the virtual workshop as a discussion about how we can “continue to show gratitude while raising our critical consciousness and identifying ways to decolonize the holiday.”
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The majority of Americans, 73%, say their rights come from God, not government, and say government can’t force Americans to violate their religious beliefs, according to a poll conducted by Summit.org and McLaughlin and Associates.
“There’s a widening gap between the dominant media narrative and what the American people actually believe,” Dr. Jeff Myers of Summit.org said in a statement accompanying the poll results. “We’re seeing that in these numbers. As we approach a holiday established to thank God for His blessings on our nation, the American people still believe that our rights come from God, not from government, and that the right to believe and practice our religion must be respected.
“Despite everything, it is encouraging to see that Americans still acknowledge the freedoms that made this nation great.”
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Target will permanently close all stores for Thanksgiving heading into the holiday shopping season, multiple sources reported.
Retailers were forced to extend the holiday shopping rush with sales beginning in October, the Associated Press reported.
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U.S. Representative Jody Hice (R-GA-10) and U.S. Representative Austin Scott (R-GA-08) told their respective constituents this month that Thanksgiving this year will likely cost them more than any other.
Scott, in an email to constituents, said the following:
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Freedom in Australia is now at the mercy of a state and its police apparatus bent on controlling people’s every movement.
But despite the extensive footage of protests gone violent, neither American liberal media nor domestic social justice movements are raising alarms about police brutality in that country.
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November of 1621 marked one-year in the New World for a band of what began as 35 English religious separatists and 67 entrepreneurs who had landed on the shores of New England. In their first winter, harsh conditions and diseases like pneumonia and scurvy led to the death of forty-five of the original 102.
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Turkey and stuffing. Detroit Lions Football. Turkey Trots. Parades and the arrival of Santa. Followed by frenzied shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Maybe a bit of charity on Giving Tuesday. The ultimate American holiday. What more could you need?
Gratitude. Blessings. Humility. Although historical debate surrounds the origins of Thanksgiving in colonial America, it has a deeply rooted core that today is overshadowed by consumerism and entertainment culture.
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Thanksgiving is all about spending quality time with family and friends away from the everyday responsibilities such as work and school, but the holiday really centers around the large afternoon feast where so much food is consumed that a nap is usually required immediately afterward.
And everybody knows that Turkey is the mainstay of traditionally Thanksgiving meals, hence the nickname Turkey Day, but what about the side dishes? Which classic sides are more popular than others?
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An opinion columnist at the University of Virginia’s student newspaper encouraged her readers to “stand up” to “racist family” at Thanksgiving.
Emma Camp, who writes a regular opinion column for the Cavalier Daily, asserted that “white progressives must privilege their principles over personal comfort” in conversations with family during the holiday season. In order to fulfill this mandate, they “need to stand up to their racist loved ones.”
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Democratic Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak on Sunday strengthened the state’s mask mandate and limited attendees in private gatherings ahead of Thanksgiving.
Residents must wear face coverings whether gathering indoors or outside if any member that’s not in their household is present, according to a press release from the governor’s office. Private gatherings are limited to 10 people from a maximum of two separate households and public events will be capped at 50 people or 25% capacity, whichever is less, the order, which will last a total of three weeks, read.
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