Home > Holiday Blog > Archives > 2007 > November > 12
Monday, November 12, 2007
When do you plan Thanksgiving?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For Thanksgiving this year, I’m buying a turkey from a local farm, one that’s raised on pasture. I ordered the turkey last summer, before the farmer got his poults in. I’m looking forward to preparing it, and learning more about the difference in how a turkey that walks around on grass all days tastes, compared to one raised in confined quarters and given feed, as the traditional Thanksgiving centerpiece is.
Usually I make a last-minute run to the store, hoping to find a fresh bird that’s about the right size. (And they never are. They’re always 20 pounds or larger, if you wait until the day before Thanksgiving. And everything else is frozen.)
Grocery stores, of course, want us to start thinking about booking a turkey earlier. Whole Foods Market had a media tasting of its takeout menu on Nov. 8, complete with wine pairings. (Since I’d just faux-fried a turkey in a new infrared cooker from Char-Broil two days earlier, I passed up the chance for yet more turkey and missed the early feast.) Restaurants have been sending menus for a few weeks.
We’re still sorting through Halloween candy at my house, and except for ordering the turkey, haven’t thought about anything else related to Thanksgiving. What about you? When do you start putting together the holiday meal? Have you ever bought a special turkey, like a heritage breed? If so, was it worth the extra money?
Permalink | Comments (19) | Categories: Thanksgiving
When is it time to rock around the Christmas tree?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Before 2000, Atlanta radio stations would start sprinkling in Christmas tunes around Thanksgiving, then go all Christmas on Christmas Eve.
Then that year, Peach 94.9 came up with the brilliant idea of going all Christmas for an entire month starting on Thanksgiving. That meant 24/7 Mel Torme, “Feliz Navidad” and Johnny Mathis. At the time, some “bah humbug” types called this overkill. But it worked. Ratings shot through the chimney in December for Peach.
Fish 104.7, already a Christian pop station, jumped on the sleigh ride in 2002.
B98.5, the other soft rock station, held out but finally gave in to the holly, jolly tunes in 2004.
Some years, Peach would do weekends of Christmas songs in November and start a few days before Thanksgiving.
With Peach, which became Lite, gone country, it appears we’ll only have two all-Christmas stations later this month. On Halloween, the Fish teased us with a one-day tease of Bing Crosby and Andy Williams and will be back Thanksgiving. And B98.5 is set to start its holiday cheer the same time. There’s no word if a third station is willing to do the same. (There is a third soft rock station that may go all Christmas, dubbed Lite 96.7, but it’s a limited signal on the southside and not what I would consider a true metro-wide radio station.)
When is the right time to start pumping out the “Jingle Bell Rock” on the radio? And how about those retail stores?
