Black Friday shopping has been a long-standing tradition in my family.

While many use it as an opportunity to take advantage of the latest deals and steals that are available, I more often than not enjoy the annual retail excursion for other reasons.

My main motivation is the cornucopia of interesting people watching moments that the intensity of the post-Thanksgiving event offers. How many times a year do you get the opportunity to see two people argue mercifully about the last $2 pair of pajama pants?

Somehow, on the day after a national holiday dedicated to thankfulness and togetherness, people decided that it was best to show the more off-color sides of their personalities.

It’s often a chaotic and stress-inducing scene whether it’s walking around inside the various retail establishments or driving from place to place. Lines are backed up from the registers and almost out the door, and everyone seems to forget even the basic lessons they learned in Driver’s Ed.

Despite being a guy who almost exclusively tries to avoid intense confrontations and large, unruly crowds, I look forward to waking up before the sun peeks out from the other side of the world every year for one particular moment.

Growing up with a school schedule that allows for both the day before and day after Thanksgiving off, we typically didn’t leave the house from Tuesday after school until the morning of Black Friday.

We didn’t have a grasp on what was going on at any stores because we didn’t need to go to any. We ate light the day before Thanksgiving to prepare for the feasting that would take place. We typically ate at two different locations to be able to visit with both sides of the family.

So, when we woke up at 4 a.m. on the day after Thanksgiving, it was as if somebody flipped this magical switch, and seemingly overnight, it became Christmas everywhere.

Suddenly the radio had Christmas music options that weren’t there mere hours before. Decorations seemed to have popped out of thin air along roads that we frequently traveled. It was an incredibly exciting trip to our favorite shopping location, but it was nothing compared to stepping inside for the first time.

Our preferred first destination was always the Stones River Mall in Murfreesboro. It was a good central hub that, at the time, had a lot of variety in stores. This was before most of the bigger retailers decided to jump over to the newer and prettier Avenue.

When we opened the doors to walk into the mall, it was as if we had stepped into this Christmas wonderland. Everything was decorated. Christmas music was joyfully adding a whimsical ambiance. People were dressed in their Christmas best, with some families even coming out in matching outfits to celebrate the holiday.

Best of all, Santa had an area carved out where he set up shop to visit with the countless children that came just to see him.

Then for the next 30 days or so, it was Christmas.

Unfortunately, that magical moment appears to have gone by the wayside.

You always used to hear it referred to as the Christmas Season. This cheerful timespan between Thanksgiving and December 26 where the world just seems different. Everyone acts a little nicer and might be slightly more inclined to be friendly to their neighbors.

There was this feeling that anything could happen, and that miracle that you hoped for never felt more possible. Christmases as of late haven’t felt like they have the same allure.

It could be me. Maybe it’s just the simple fact of life that as I get older, I become a little more cynical about certain things. I try not to, but it happens.

The state of the world may influence it as well, but I don’t give that argument nearly as much credence though because no matter the circumstances, as a people we’ve always been well-versed at finding joy when it doesn’t present itself regularly.

I think the problem is that we don’t contain the Christmas season to just a season anymore.

In my mind, there shouldn’t be any reason why you see Christmas themed items in the stores before Halloween has even come and gone.

Nowadays you have channels that you can find on any streaming app that play Christmas music all year long.

The Hallmark channel has their annual Christmas in July block where they play nonstop Christmas movies for several weeks in the middle of the summer and start their usual holiday schedule way too close to Labor Day.

Don’t get me wrong. I totally get it.

Especially when the world seems dark and gloomy, why wouldn’t we want to extend the most joyous season even farther?

Well, because when you do that, it makes the actual Christmas season less special.

Why get excited about the ability to watch your favorite Christmas movie in December when you can just easily see it during a break from tubing on the lake during Memorial Day weekend? How do you get excited about hearing your favorite Christmas song for the first time in December when it’s on your playlist in August?

It’s kind of like when you were a kid and you would get incredibly enthused when you felt your parents’ car slowly pulling into your local ice cream establishment because they’re surprising you with a treat.

If that happened every day of the month, even as a kid you would probably say about halfway through “Man, I think might be tired of ice cream.”

The Christmas season was always a special time of the year, and it still is. It’s still a season of joy and happiness where the most impossible things always seem to happen.

While it’s natural to want to extend those feelings into the other 11 months of the year, I think doing that takes away some of  the magic that it’s known for.

Let’s keep Christmas to a season and let it have the impact that it deserves.