Christmas is a holiday for kids. Thanksgiving is for older people.

People my age aren’t bursting with excitement about what we think will be under the tree in four weeks. We have everything. Seriously. And if by some chance we don’t have it, we’ll go out and buy it ourselves.

But Thanksgiving isn’t about – or isn’t supposed to be – about what we’re getting. Other than what’s probably the best meal most of us will eat in 2025. 

Thanksgiving is about sitting at a table with other members of your family. For those who aren’t quite as old as I am, that could mean a lot of difficult political discussion. If that’s the case in your celebration, my condolences.

But for the family matriarch and patriarch, the gathering together is a moment of recognition. You look at the people seated around your table, from your oldest child to youngest family member, and think about what you’ve accomplished in life.

I look on in awe. We have no grandchildren – yet, anyway. But we have two adult kids, my daughter is married and my son is romantically involved. And sitting and watching the best people I know tell stories, jokes, kid each other, complain about something, comment on the food is the best thing I can imagine.

When I watch it, I think of my wife’s father and my father.

My wife’s dad was a really hard-working man who was quiet and serious. Except on a holiday like Thanksgiving. Then he would sit in the family living room, watch his grandchildren running around – and smile the entire day. It was a time in his life when he thought that maybe, just maybe, all he endured in the past – and there was a lot – was worth it.

Because Thanksgiving Day itself was so crazy, we didn’t spend the holiday with my parents. What we did was have an early Thanksgiving two weeks before that made it easier for those traveling a distance – that was most of us – to get there.

At the end, my father would want a family picture. We’d sit around the dining room table and just before the camera clicked atop the tripod, Dad would place a bottle of wine consumed during dinner because, in his words, he wanted “everyone to see how well he’s doing.”

I didn’t think much of Thanksgiving until the past few years, in retirement. When I was working at CNN, the day after was the big shopping scramble of Black Friday,. We started covering stuff around midnight and into the early hours of the day. So I couldn’t really unwind and enjoy Thanksgiving Day knowing I had to be up at around 3 a.m. to get to Manhattan.

Now that I don’t care if Walmart opens at 4 a.m., 5 a.m. or ever, Thanksgiving means more, It’s a great chance to reflect on the joy my family brings me every day. I’m not a religious person, but there is a sense of gratitude that this is how my life has unfolded.

I hope you feel the same way today. There are people who don’t – and this might very well be a sad or painful day for them. I can’t imagine any family with a member in custody after ICE grabbed them cares a whit for turkey or the Macy’s parade balloons. There are folks struggling economically, or in a bad way physically, and we should think of them this day.

I think what Thanksgiving means the 72nd time is that there is much to appreciate about this life and we should celebrate it. And that it isn’t a competition – working to make others feel as fortunate as we are should be a given, today and everyday.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and all who you love!