MSNBC: Hard times mean leaner Thanksgiving dinners (Many families lack the cash — and spirit)

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Hard times mean leaner Thanksgiving dinners
Many families lack the cash — and spirit — for lavish holiday feast this year

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27791739/

By Elizabeth Chuck
Reporter
msnbc.com
updated 7:16 a.m. PT, Tues., Nov. 25, 2008

For Bridget Smith and her family, Thanksgiving is going to be different this year. For one thing, they might not have a dining room table.

Smith, a Corona, Calif., mother of four, is putting her family's furniture up for sale on Craigslist in an effort to pay the mortgage, which is behind schedule.

“We’re trying to be as lighthearted as we can about this," she said. "I keep telling my husband when things pick up, we’ll get really nice things again.”

The Smiths, along with millions of other families across the country, have seen the economic downturn take a bite out of their Thanksgiving dinner, raising the prospect that a normally joyful holiday will be darkened by financial gloom this year.

Traditionally, the Smiths have hosted a Thanksgiving meal in their home with members of their extended family. David, Bridget's husband, sells security systems to car dealers. Money was never an issue in the past, but as auto sales have crumbled this year, so have his sales.

This year, “my sister-in-law is having to pay for everything,” said Bridget, who worked for Merrill Lynch before becoming a stay-at-home mom. “It’s really humbling.”

Table or not, the Smiths are still grateful for what they do have. David has been receiving unemployment benefits, and the family has applied for food stamps, but Bridget, 34, said, “We have the whole family and everyone’s pretty healthy, and that’s a lot to be thankful for.”



From left, twins Aaron and Blake Smith, 6; Juliet, three months; and Evan, 4, smile in a photo taken in their Corona, Calif., neighborhood. Their mother, Bridget Smith, was one of many msnbc.com readers who said the economy was affecting their Thanksgiving this year.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[lisa58]

2. I'm not into it at all - I certainly don't want to do both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. I do Thanksgiving, but not Christmas

as Thanksgiving to me is a time to thank your neighbors for their help and company in the past year, and to appreciate what you have, spiritually as well as materially.

[gizmo1979]

8. Isn't that the idea of the whole holiday thing?

I'm not spiritual at all,but I like the general good will that seems to occur during the holidays.You don't need to celebrate in the whooohoo sense of it but at least revel in the feeling of it.To hope the obese people are so broke they can't eat that's is wrong on sooooo many levels.I don't think you get it at all.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

11. I think your response is directed at another poster

As someone who has been obese, I understand that the problem can very well be a complex one, and not simply caused by eating too much of the wrong foods. The sad thing is that when people do try to change their diet to a healthy one, cost can be an obstacle. I work for a health education foundation, and we get some pretty ill people in our clinic--and often because of their illness they don't have much money because they can't keep a job. One thing we try and show them is how to eat in a way that will be healthy for them--but it can be a real challenge when they can't afford the food they need to keep up their health.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

6. I'm just DRAINED.

I will go to Thanksgiving morning Mass at my church because these folks are my friends, my extended family. But in the last few months, all I see on the faces of the people I love...and complete strangers, the people I talk to as a business owner...is fear, and pain. I'm sick of it.

I'm a Christian. I understand the literal meaning of "Thanksgiving," and I also understand the meaning that a Christian finds in Christmas.

But I'll be totally honest with you...this year I am strictly going through the motions. I can't sing "Jingle Bells" while someone I care for is suffering.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. We have a neighborhood meal

where everyone comes and those who have bring a dish or two. Hope this sort of tradition spreads to other places as well.

[charlie]

7. Wow

That's pretty neat. I've never lived where I could imagine that happening. Hard times just might bring us together, though. I hope, at least.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

10. It can happen

it just takes a couple of folks to start it.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

13. I envy the fact that you live in a neighborhood where that happens...

...mine's a little odd. The FBI and DEA busted the house across the street this past summer because it was a fully-functional meth lab. The "kingpin" was the son of the woman who owns the house. She either lied or did a mighty impressive dance in front of law enforcement because the property WAS NOT seized. As a matter of fact, she's spent the last few months completely gutting and remodeling the home and has just moved back in herself. I'm talking contractors, 9 to 5, 6 days a week, for 3 months. That don't come cheap, as they say...

Everyone involved in the day-to-day operation of the meth lab has been there, daily, except one guy. My guess is they threw him under the bus.

:patriot:

[proud patriot]

18. I like that tradition

[Lars39]

4. I've been to one dinner so far...

everyone's cutting back. There used to be splashy extravagant desserts and starters, this time it was just the basics.

[roguevalley]

9. I cooked thanksgiving dinner for work today and brought it in. You

never know when someone is going to go hungry. I did this for 24 years as a teacher after asking my kids, what is going to be in your dinner this year and having half my first graders not say a word. Obese people. What a hard heart. There is silent suffering going on here. Selling your furniture to pay your house? That is tragic. Those children are beautiful. GOd bless that family.

[Missy Vixen]

12. At least those kids won't be fat, will they?

God.
Julie

p.s. roguevalley, thanks for caring enough to make sure that those at your work got a little celebration, too.

[roguevalley]

17. thank you, honey. the odd irony is that poor kids get condemned to

obesity because eating good and right is expensive. god help us all. Happy holidays, honey.

[slackmaster]

14. I know more about this situation than most people can easily see - I feel sorry for those children

Their parents are putting them through a sad, miserable experience that was not necessary, and it was probably the result of greed and poor financial planning as much as anything else.

Reader's Digest version for easy reading: My job gives me easy access to certain kinds of public record data. The Smiths owe possibly twice as much in mortgage debt as they paid for their home in 2000, and it was not cheap at the time they bought it. But MSNBC didn't tell us any of that, because their only purpose in publishing the story is to get people to click on ads and to watch their cable TV channels.

I can't say for sure how they have spent what may amount to more than a half a million dollars that they have borrowed over the last eight years. It's possible that the Smiths had some uninsured medical expenses or some other unexpected financial hit. But if that kind of thing was part of the story, wouldn't it have been incumbent on MSNBC to mention it? All they told us was the man lost his job and now they are strapped for cash, facing foreclosure.

I believe this is a family that was living an unsustainable lifestyle, a bubble economy that relied too heavily on ever-increasing property values and "secure" employment, at the expense of having some savings to get them through rough times. Their mortgage payments are far higher than anything I expect to ever be able to afford, plus their four children eat a lot more than my two cats.

“We have the whole family and everyone’s pretty healthy, and that’s a lot to be thankful for.”

I'm sure it's a humbling experience for someone who was living high on the hog having to go to a food bank. I hope the Smiths get some personal help from family, neighbors, and friends. I hope their children learn something from the obvious mistakes their parents have made with financial decisions. They're not ever going to face the real starvation of the Third World. Being California poor is a whole lot better even that being Detroit poor.

I'm sorry if my previous response upset anyone in this thread. I am not a mean person. I did not and do not mean to put down the Smiths, or fat people, or anyone who is facing problems they did not plan for.

Thanks to the Moderators for your patience and understanding.

[Pithy]

15. the thing is

we all make mistakes, and hopefully, we learn from them. the children in the photo are all young, and so their parents are likely in their early to mid-thirties. i can remember how fiscally clueless I was at that age - why judge? they're in a bind, and it's a shame. just like it is and will be for millions of others in the next few years.

[slackmaster]

19. My only judgement is of the media for crass exploitation, and the audience for naivete

Yes, it's a shame that family is in a jam. I think it's a bigger shame that MSNBC can parade them out on the Web, tell a heavily slanted partial truth about their story, and some people lap it up like kittens gorging themselves on warm milk, never thinking to question the veracity of what they have been fed or wondering about the rest of the story. But MSNBC and the others do a version of this story every holiday season, and people suck it up as reliably as the arrival of winter.

[KillCapitalism]

16. I will be volunteering at a shelter on Thanksgiving day.

I bet we're going to be REALLY busy there.

In fact, it has become busier every year in the past six years I have volunteered.

[mnhtnbb]

20. I just sent a check to our local food bank in place of Christmas presents for my brother/SIL