It’s that time of year again for Thanksgiving turkey and families spending time together.

Until of course, it’s time to pack up and wait in line to get into a bustling, crammed store with marked-down prices.

With each year, it’s too common to see Thanksgiving being shadowed and overtaken by the commercial beast that is Black Friday. No longer do shoppers wake up early Friday morning to wait in line. Instead they skip out on their important family dinner on Thursday to try to get the best deals. The impatience of today’s society will only create stronger consumer craze in the future.

Thanksgiving is a time for family and being thankful. For many, the last few hours after dinner is when the most family members are in attendance, basking in the afterglow of delicious food and full tummies. It is a day that means more than eating food—it means getting people you love together.

As college students, we realize that these important moments with family grow fewer and farther apart as we move out and do our own thing.

As the Black Friday holiday bleeds closer to Thanksgiving every year, more and more businesses are trying to prevent it. This year, the Mall of America will close its doors for the entirety of Thanksgiving, giving their employees the opportunity to spend it with their families.

Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI) is once again closing its doors on Black Friday, giving its thousands of employees a paid day off. REI urges its customers and employees to join them in “OptOutside,” a movement in which people opt out of feeding the commercialism and get outside and do something. So far, almost 2 million people have joined REI in “OptOutside” on their website.

This evolution of taking back Thanksgiving and dimming the blinding craze of Black Friday only has benefits for our society. The prioritization of family and the family dinner at home reminds us the value of them. Instead of rushing through Thanksgiving to get to the deals that Black Friday offers, we slow down and enjoy the true meaning of the holiday of being thankful for what you have.