Growing up, Thanksgiving was always one of my favorite holidays. As a boy who loved to eat — and still does — and a Dallas Cowboys fan, turkey day was always one of my favorite times of the year.

My mom and grandmother used to flip through the newspaper on Thursday morning, looking at the deals upcoming on Black Friday and making plans. After spending Thanksgiving with their family, they’d get up before the sun rose and scurry to stores, spending most of the day shopping before returning for a nap and leaving again to shop more.

It was a holiday tradition that we all loved — lots of food and family on Thanksgiving and shopping until you dropped on Friday.

Now that sadly isn’t the case.

Black Friday might as well be renamed Black Thursday, because retailers nationwide again are opening up Thanksgiving afternoon and night to start their sales early.

In the old days, we’d eat Thanksgiving lunch around 12:30 p.m., or right about the time the Detroit Lions were down three touchdowns.

Then, we’d watch the game and get ready for leftovers that afternoon.

Now, if you’re not in line at 3 p.m., you probably aren’t getting a front page item.

We, the frantic shoppers who raced to stores and fought to save a few bucks, have made Black Friday the biggest shopping day of the year and are therefore partly to blame. Obviously given the situation, retailers want to make sure you are in their store and not others, so the fight to open earlier continues.

I admit that when the sales started on Friday, I could get excited about a product or two. While I don’t love the lines or the crowds, I have found a deal a couple of deals through the years that I’m proud to tell stories about. It’s competitive standing in line and trying to get the product you want.

This year I’m just not as into it though.

Maybe it’s because I haven’t found a deal I can’t live without, but I think it’s mainly because I can’t fathom spending half my day going to a store to try to save a few dollars.

I think I’ll probably spend that time with my family and pick through the leftover deals Friday morning.

It looks like many Americans agree with me too.

According to the National Retail Federation, only 18.3 percent of people — or 25.6 million — who said they will shop on Thanksgiving weekend will actually do their shopping on Thanksgiving Day. That’s down from 23.5 percent last year.

Maybe if the vast majority stop giving into the Thursday sales, we can move the focus of Thanksgiving back to where it should be.