Remember the days when Black Friday sales actually started on Friday?

In recent years, stores just keeping pushing the start times earlier and earlier, basically “blacking” out Thursday through Sunday of the last week in November.

Some stores try to cover the fact that they’re making their employees come in on Thanksgiving Day. Wal-Mart says something to the effect of, “But we’ve opened sales earlier so that people don’t have to shop on Thanksgiving.” But the problem still remains that even if the customers have checked out for the holiday, workers are still being kept in the check stands.

Recently a number of businesses, including stores such as REI, GameStop, Costco, Staples, Nordstrom, T.J. Maxx and Harbor Freight have declared they won’t be opening on Thanksgiving Day, along with about 20 other competitors. Pier 1 Imports has reportedly been keeping its doors closed and its seasonal décor to themselves on Thanksgiving Day since 2011.

“We think that Black Friday has gotten out of hand, and so we are choosing to invest in helping people get outside with loved ones this holiday season, over spending it in the aisles,” REI’s President and CEO Jerry Stritzke told The Atlantic.

K-Mart, however, is not only opening at 6 a.m., it is being criticized for failing to notify its employees whether they will have to work on the busy holiday.

According to an article in ThinkProgress, “a survey of 40 self-identified Kmart employees in 18 states conducted by Coworker.org and shared with ThinkProgress, [showed that] 95 percent said they still don’t know their schedules for Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, and 70 percent say their managers haven’t even told them what the store’s hours will be.”

Think Progress also said that  a K-Mart “spokesperson said in an email this is not consistent with store protocol, which is to post all schedules, including for holidays, two weeks in advance and to limit any changes.”

Say what you will about the origin of Thanksgiving, every year sentiments about self-entitled pilgrims seem to grow and distaste for the holiday abounds. But I don’t see it being shown the culturally inappropriate door – as Columbus Day has – for one large reason: Columbus Day wasn’t about family.

Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks with the people you are most thankful for: something that is hard to do when your employer wants you to trade in stuffing your face with pumpkin pie for stuffing grabs bags for Black Friday sales.

So it would seem like one side of the solution to keeping families together on turkey day is for companies to find in their hearts to not open and keep Black Friday on Friday. The other side is for us overachieving Christmas present shoppers to take a cue from REI and “get outside with loved ones this holiday season” instead of preemptively packing our Christmas tree skirts with 50% off Fisher Price toys and Macy’s sweaters.

If the future of Thanksgiving truly is to be more focused on giving thanks than the misgivings of long-deceased settlers, then maybe we should be spending the holiday at home being truly grateful for what we already have instead of in the stores looking for the next best stocking stuffer.