A holiday custom we decided to do without, here among The Shops at Sea Pines Center, is the idea of making the day after Thanksgiving into some desperate form of shopping. We like to keep it more serene here, enjoying the special Sea Pines pace that we practice all year. The folks we know seem to appreciate this.

In fact, we find it curious that the annual stampede elsewhere took shape in the first place, so we looked into it.

You Don’t Compete with Santa Claus

A friend who labored long in the mines of Madison Avenue remembers when certain advertisers – the ones who marketed need-to-haves such as cars and appliances – actually avoided advertising during the holidays. Given the avalanche we have seen since those days, it’s hard to remember that the conventional wisdom was, “you don’t compete with Santa Claus.”

A certain exception grew among retail advertisers. Discovering that families and friends sometimes felt they had seen enough of each other by the day after Thanksgiving, the custom of making “Black Friday” into a big shopping occasion somehow caught on. (With a name like that one, it’s hard to believe it became popular.) Stampedes at the morning door-openings were, for a time, a staple of local TV stations’ coverage of “the official beginning of Christmas shopping.”

We like to recall when it was less official.

Thankful for Our Stories

As we celebrate Thanksgiving, we give thought to how thankful we are for this place where we live, where people from all over are inspired to visit, where people pause, and re-wrap their arms around the balance of life. We give thanks for this paradise.

They say that the stories we tell about our beginnings are a foundation for who we know ourselves to be. Here in Sea Pines, it is the true story of Charles Fraser, son of a lumber magnate who decided that saving trees and the natural environment was the future of Hilton Head Island. In the process, Charles’s original idea became America’s favorite vacation island, and set the standards for all the significant resorts that followed.

It was so influential in fact, that we have to remind ourselves now and then how unusual this approach actually was. Of course, we never run out of lessons to learn from that story of vision and persistence.

Sharing Caught On

Just as the stories we tell about our nation’s first Thanksgiving are based on sharing, our view of Hilton Head Island includes a growing following of people who choose to share our island as the place where they celebrate Thanksgiving today. We noticed it years ago. What we saw was that our visitors began to multiply through the weeks that lead to Thanksgiving, and all through the Thanksgiving holiday. What once had been a tradition-bound occasion, looking back a generation or two for a reassuring family connection, began to be a holiday closer to each family’s own design.

For a reassuring connection, families began to dream of a warm Thanksgiving that wasn’t stuffy. Instead of enduring dreary weather, and a feeling of being shut in with family members we see only a couple of times a year, people found that the goodness of Thanksgiving could be celebrated in a place that was just more fun.

Today, a warm Thanksgiving can take place in a spot where something of interest for everyone is easily at hand. Here in Sea Pines, we are happy to have played a part in this evolution.

How We Celebrate

And that’s the beginning of a rather good description of The Shops at Sea Pines Center, where the ingredients and décor and remembrances for a warm Thanksgiving await. The Center itself fully qualifies as a place you should consider making part of your new image of Thanksgiving. And the things you’ll find there are barely the beginning. The setting too, and the feeling of beauty, relaxation and well-being that comes with it, are perhaps the bigger part of a warm Thanksgiving story.

With its foliage and fountains and statuary, its sights and sounds of relaxation and enjoyment, the Center offers you more than simply a place to find the things you need conveniently. Although it is clear that the visionary founder of Sea Pines had convenience in mind when he located The Shops right in the middle of “the Miracle Mile” connecting Harbour Town with the Beach Club, the atmosphere he envisioned here has become an everyday reality.

The plaza that is tucked within the embrace of Sea Pines Center is a crossroads for conversation and community, too. Some say it is the essence of the Sea Pines lifestyle – casual relaxation blended tastefully with the options and advantages of achievement.

At any time of year, The Center offers a seasonal version of the original Hilton Head Island dream. Now, as the holidays approach, it offers the perfect backdrop for a warm way of celebrating.