As a real-life resident of Plymouth County hailing from a town
founded by Myles Standish, it is only natural that I am the SL
Enquirer's expert in all things Thanksgiving. This is true even though I
am the Sportswriter at this paper, and it is true even though we have
several writers who are better at Crafts stuff than I am by a
significant margin. I have a Thanksgiving-themed authenticity that you
can only get from a realtor. It's like when rappers have street
credibility, just with cranberries and little funny buckled hats.
Thanksgiving is a harvest festival. This is why Thanksgiving has so
much emphasis on stuffing... stuffing your face! Farmers are happy when
they get the harvest in. Their work is lessened afterward, they have
food for the winter and they can sell some of the crop to buy goods they
need. What better way to celebrate the harvest than to fill your tummy?
Thanksgiving celebrations have strayed from the original some- the
Pilgrims had no cranberry sauce, rarely watched the NFL, and invited
Wampanoags over for dinner- but the basic idea is still the same.
SL has a bit of a Thanksgiving void that you don't see with other
major holidays. I blame non-Americans, who either aren't thankful enough
or who have their Thanksgiving on some non-November date. If we ever
get an American Napoleon or an American Genghis Khan, this is probably
something he will straighten out in conquered territories early in his
reign. Sometimes you have to force Thankfulness onto some people, and
it's better to get us all synched up on the same date for it. They'll
thank us for it later, once they are more thankful.
I did a search and found a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving sim, but the
landmark they gave me dropped me off the edge of the property and I fell
3500 meters, so eff them. I went to a Plymouth-themed sim a long time
ago, they even had the Mayflower and a Wampanoag village, but that place
is no longer operational. I was there long enough ago that the pictures
I took there no longer work. Prolly from an older SL Enquirer host,
I've been here many moons. I have yet to find another Pilgrim sim, but I
never stop looking... so, therefore, you can stop looking.
Either way, it can be tough to get Thanksgiving/harvest themed
goods on SL. Retailers, much like in real life, have a short window
between Halloween and Christmas seasons for Thanksgiving. Brooke
Fairplay, a store owner who I spoke with when researching this article,
said she has to take down all of her Autumn stuff two days after
Thanksgiving to make room for all her Christmas stuff. She makes up for
it by being able to bundle Thanksgiving and Halloween together, as they
share iconic decorations like corn stalks and pumpkins. Not many people
beyond jihad-intensity bargain hunters jump up in May and say, "Hot damn, I'd better go buy some Thanksgiving-themed stuff."
The time to strike is now, and the place to strike is Fairplay
Designs. I popped in there today, unannounced, ran into the owner (the
previously mentioned Brooke Fairplay), looked around some... I'm a
first-class snoop. It's what I do. It's all I do. I prefer to visit the
place as a regular tourist/consumer rather than as a scheduled
journalistic appointment. I see it how you see it.
You'll like seeing this place. She has seasonal goods and is all
over the Harvest season. She has turkeys, mums, pumpkin pies, fall
leaves, scarecrows, greeting cards, balloons, hay, corn stalks, and a
whole bunch of other stuff so Thanksgiving-ish that you could probably
get Priscilla Alden's phone number. If you scatter this stuff around
your property properly, you'll have a rustic, pastoral vibe, even if you
live in an urban sim. The prices are Fair(play) enough that you won't
be spending frivolously to decorate your house for November. I wouldn't
do that to you.
If you're a guy who owns a SL property and you maybe are gonna have
a girl over this November, you can spend a bit of lira here and be
seasonably well-decorated when the young lady arrives. If you are a man
who is reading a holiday decoration article, you probably don't need me
telling you that the girl will probably not be impressed if your house
only has a rug, a hot tub, and a BDSM bed... but I'll mention it anyway,
just in case. If you have no idea where to put the corn stalks and the
scarecrow, maybe take the young lady with you to Fairplay Designs and
let her pick out and- later, at your house- place the stuff. You can
ease her into the Fuck Couch part of the house later, once there are oak
trees on your property and she thinks you're all sensitive and stuff.
If you are hosting any sort of Thanksgiving event, you probably
want to dip into Fairplay Designs. They have what you need. As I
mentioned before, they are about a month away from going All Christmas,
so you're good there for that holiday, too. Brooke already has a bunch
of Christmas stuff out, and even more, will be coming once December hits.
But for now, in November, think Thanksgiving.
Of course, I have the landmark! It's down below somewhere!
Fairplay Designs = http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Joiner/243/61/30