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FDR with his famous black arm band.

Rev. Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping protesting at the NYC Disney Store in August of this year.

I spent my Thanksgiving holidays in New York City this year. Our Thanksgiving dinner was not our traditional turkey gluttony because we were visiting my cousin and her newborn baby and a huge feast was just not logistically possible in her tiny kitchen and with the demands of a baby. Still, we were together (MaxMarginal's mom recommended a great little bistro that even pleased my finicky aunt), we enjoyed ourselves immensely and that's what the holidays are about, right?

But it was another kind of the deadly sins that caught my family's attention after Thanksgiving: the avarice of Black Friday. Walking back to our hotel from the Upper West Side, my children noticed that there were far more people camping out at the Best Buy and Macy's than were there for the Thanksgiving Day parade. Walmart proudly announced in TV ads that they would open at 4 am (!!!) for shoppers. Ads for JCPenneys/Kohls/Kmart/Sears were similarly emblazoned with promises of great deals for those willing to forfeit sleep for shopping.

Now I know that we need to spend to stimulate the economy, but this adulation to conspicuous consumption even made my "gimme gimme" youngsters a little sick. I'm not as far over as to subscribe to the BuyNothingChristmas; my kids will have a few presents to open under the tree. But nothing that would require me to brave the malls in the wee hours of the morning, nor enable virtual slave labor in third world countries for the sake of our vanity. However, one of the things I insist my kids do every year is make gifts for family. One year we made hundreds of truffles and packaged them prettily. Another year, we made personalized ornaments. Another year were decorated coupons for chores and good deeds. The point is that they have to do something, not purchase something, which is the way I prefer to focus my attention on Black Friday.

What do you for the holidays to get yourselves in the spirit?

And on a semi-related note, Huffington Post has put together a list of 15 toys that you should never, and I do mean never, consider purchasing for your child. Like the Death Wish Elmo:

Yeah, that gets me in the holiday mood, how about you? For more, see Mike Mozart's FAILToys YouTube Channel.

There's probably no more dangerous place on the planet than being positioned between marauding shoppers and their objects of desire on the morning of Black Friday -- as one unfortunate man discovered today:

A worker died after being trampled and a woman miscarried when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island Wal-Mart Friday morning, witnesses said.

The unidentified worker, employed as an overnight stock clerk, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m.

Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him.

"He was bum-rushed by 200 people," said Jimmy Overby, 43, a co-worker. "They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too...I literally had to fight people off my back."

Maybe it's time for people to start getting some perspective on "holiday bargains." Because this is just sick.

Of course, we are supporters of avoiding this madness altogether by supporting Buy Nothing Day.

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I was watching MSNBC this morning and during a segment on the Black Friday shopping frenzy and the throngs of people waiting in line to get into a New Jersey mall, when something caught my eye. I rewound the video and sure enough, the first two people through the door were wearing protest shirts -- "Impeach Bush" and "Out Of Iraq".

I don't know who these brave souls are, but I thought I'd thank them for waiting in line to get the chance to make their statement and give them props for getting the holidays off to a great start and trying to spread some good will. We can only hope security didn't tackle, tase or beat them...

*Update: They made it on CNN later in the morning!

Happy Black Friday ....