1) It's a production more than anything. Cooking, Eating, Disgesting, etc.
2) Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
3) Watching It's a Wonderful Life. This is the true beginning of Christmas season. It becomes officially appropriate to decorate, begin shopping, and other festive things of the sort. Not before Thanksgiving, after. This is a rule broken often which makes me a little bit sick sometimes. The longer you save it, the better it will be. At least that's what I've convinced myself.