As Halloween passes, stores everywhere are gearing up for the next holiday: Christmas. Tinsel, toy Santa dolls, two-for-one specials on egg nog; Christmas is upon us.

Hang on a minute though, there's something wrong with that statement. Christmas is the next holiday? Actually the next big holiday celebration is in November. That holiday is Thanksgiving. It's so easy to forget Thanksgiving that most people don't even get the day off.

So how is it our minds go from Halloween and straight to Christmas when Thanksgiving has been smack dab in the middle of them for decades? Well, like all things stuck in the middle, it kind of just gets forgotten. But why?

Well the first (and somewhat embarrassing reason) is that Thanksgiving is not a gift-giving holiday. On Halloween, we give out candy and other sweet treats and dress up. On Christmas, we exchange gifts, sing songs and decorate a tree. On Thanksgiving, we sit down to an early dinner - usually Turkey but sometimes ham - and eat.

Granted there's nothing like a big home-cooked meal and being around family and/or friends, but we kind of do this at Christmas too. Only difference is we give each other stuff afterwards.

Another reason is that Thanksgiving usually doesn't involve much decorating. Sure the pine cone turkey you made in fourth grade might still hold a spot on the table each year, but have you drove past a house on Thanksgiving decorated like it is at Christmas? Probably not.

On Halloween there's an endless supply of spooky decorations from silly to downright gory. During Christmas it's twinkling lights, trees, inflatable snowmen, angels, Santa, his deer and maybe an elf or two sprawled over every inch of someone's lawn.

But Thanksgiving? The only decorations are likely homemade, save for a few cardboard cut-outs of cartoon turkeys smaller than the average size of a poster. Some may go so far as to make a cornucopia, the horn shaped basket with harvest food spilling out.

Also, when was the last time you heard a song celebrating Thanksgiving? For Halloween, there's a wide range from silly to spine-chilling. For Christmas, there are the traditional songs such as "Silent Night," silly songs like "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer," and some that were just written for the season.

One last issue is that sometimes people just can't get Thanksgiving off of work. Thanksgiving falls on the third Thursday of every November, and seeing as most people generally work Monday through Friday, it's easy to see why some just can't make it. Those who work in retail are the most unfortunate since Black Friday is the day after and almost always all employees need to be present. For them, going out of town is not an option.

Thanksgiving is a nice holiday with lots of good food and people to talk to, but it just doesn't live up to the commercial hype of Halloween and Christmas.