Branna: All Hail to the Holidays!
It’s a wrap! (well, almost). We made it to our final month of 2025. The turkey’s not even cold and we seamlessly survived the “Twelve-Month Tease,” also known as “Black Friday.” Analogous to the green flag waving at the Indy 500, department store doors fling open early the day after Thanksgiving, and as declared at yet another race-to-the-finish: “And they’re off!” (for all you Kentucky Derby fans).
Crazed consumers converge to gobble up the good deals and deliverables. Hence I pose this postulate – why is it branded “Black Friday” when it actually incites ghastly amounts of greenbacks parting from our pockets, faster than the stock from the shelves?
Every year has had its own most highly-regarded gifts, including Tickle Me Elmo, Nintendo Wii, Beanie Babies and Barbies. But do you recall the chaotic clamoring for those compendious Cabbage Patch Kids? These prized products were so scarce and in-demand that riots broke out in stores, parents were ready to drive hundreds of miles to buy them, and desperate gift-givers were willing to pay big bucks for dubious doll!
In November 1983 I was working at WSAL radio in Logansport. We, too, were capitalizing on this current craze by holding a contest to win the rarest of rare – a Cabbage Patch TWIN baby doll set. Talk about having a bull’s-eye on our back! One morning I arrived at the station amidst a myriad of mayhem. The front door was shattered and law enforcement lurked everywhere. A delusional dad, maniacal mom or maybe even a grandparent-gone-gaga had egregiously grabbed the Holy Grail of Christmas that year. Never in my incumbency as a copywriter did I dream that a DOLL would drive one to such deviancy!
On the lighter side of this Yuletide yielding, there’s the deep-rooted annual “rivalry of revelry” among my friends and fellow 1977 NHS graduates, Valerie and Michele. I have no doubt that even before Halloween happens, these two are up to their eyebrows in ideas on how to hone their homes in the highest of holiday fashion. This year, Valerie unveiled her Christmas tree on Oct. 28, followed feistily on Facebook by Michele on Nov. 7. These gals win the gold for gleaning the glitter and unflinching focus on the festivities of their favorite season!
Stay tuned, my friends … I, too, am just warming up for this frosty upcoming fete!
Branna (McCarty) Shores believes that “HOME is where your story begins.” A Noblesville native and proud graduate of NHS and Purdue University, she is a professional speaker, advocate for mental health and work / family balance and retired social worker. Branna is the mother of two grown daughters, six precious grandchildren and wife of one brave husband! Her passions include singing, writing and sharing the lighter side of life through lessons learned, both personally and professionally. She can be contacted at branna18@gmail.com