It's controversial, sure. The idea goes against conventional thinking and it really riles up the retail industry and Senate conservatives, who have threatened to filibuster if a motion ever comes before them.

I believe, however, there is proof that Thanksgiving is a better holiday than Christmas.

Please, hear me out before you tie me up in Christmas ribbon and send me off to the North Pole to be tortured at the CIA's new secret elven prison. Thanksgiving just needs a better publicist — it is not merely the one day a year when you have to see that uncle who smells a little "¦ off.

These are my reasons:

â On Thanksgiving morning, you can sleep late. There are no hyped-up children who tossed and turned all night and then vaulted out of bed at 3:30 in the morning, ripped the covers off of you and screamed "Can we open presents now! Can we open presents now!"

Just turn off the alarm clock, relax in your warm bed and sleep away — unless you have to get up early to put that turkey in the oven.

â Oh yes, the gift thing. There are no traditional Thanksgiving gifts to buy on your already overused credit card, to wrap and distribute. No hours spent looking for just the right thing. No worrying that you're giving too much or too little. No spending hours trying to put together a child's toy that will be broken in seconds.

â No Thanksgiving cards to send out either.

â There's no commercialism. Or very little anyway. You are not inundated with Thanksgiving advertisements beginning in July. Houses are not decked out in orange and feathers for the holiday. Yes, the grocery stores offer specials on cans of cranberry sauce, but very seldom does that program your small children into thinking, "I must have that food item! Everyone else at school has Ocean Spray cranberry sauce!"

Sure, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving "¦ but that's all about Christmas.

â Thanksgiving saves energy. No one strings up millions of lights to honor Thanksgiving. No one plugs in a mechanical Miles Standish who climbs up and down the chimney 24 hours a day.

â On Thanksgiving, you always get turkey. You know it, you can anticipate it, you can savor it. Mmmmm, turkey. Sure, sometimes there's turkey on Christmas, but sometimes it's ham or a Christmas goose or, heaven forbid, lasagna.

â There's always football on Thanksgiving. Well, it involves the Lions, but still, it's technically football.

Where I grew up, football was a part of the Thanksgiving festivities, arch-rivals meeting on the high-school fields in the morning then going home for the holiday feast. Now, at least, I can sit back after a good meal and watch America's favorite sport on television without anyone complaining — because it's tradition.

On Christmas, you only get football if the holiday happens to fall on a weekend. Otherwise, the only game on is the stinking Blue-Gray game. Does anyone watch the Blue-Gray game? Does anyone know what it is? Should we be perpetuating the Civil War in any case? Do the coaches in this bargain-basement college-all-star game rile up their teams with cries of "Remember Fredericksburg!" and "Down with Jefferson Davis!"

Huh. My people tell me the Blue-Gray game — which I watched with my grandfather for 28 consecutive Christmases — was canceled in 2003. Now what do I watch on Christmas? That punk Kobe Bryant in an NBA game? Not bloody likely. This is going to be the worst Christmas ever.

â On Thanksgiving, there's a chance that when you drive to your relatives' homes, the streets won't be coated with ice and snow. Not a guarantee, but a chance. At Christmas, there's no chance.

â On Thanksgiving, you get to see TV personalities who must have somehow ticked off the network wearing outrageous headgear and painted-on smiles as they sit in the cold describing floats and giant balloons while using incredibly lame jokes written by the only interns who somehow couldn't wrangle getting Thanksgiving week off.

â Thanksgiving gives many people a guaranteed four-day weekend. What happens when Christmas falls on a Saturday or Sunday?

â Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ, but the origins of the holiday are cloaked in legend and pagan ritual and the only thing scholars can agree on is that Christ was not actually born on Dec. 25.

Thanksgiving, we know with historical certainty, was originally held on the final Thursday in November, when Lewis and Clark served mashed potatoes and candied yams to Pocahontas and Gandhi.

â On Thanksgiving, we don't have to explain to children how Santa can squeeze down that chimney and visit a billion homes in one evening. It is so much easier to explain how a turkey gets into the oven.

â The Peanuts Thanksgiving special is underrated.

â Unless you're doing it wrong, putting that tree up before the first legal day of tree-raising — on Thanksgiving — you don't have a giant piece of piney plant life taking up space in your living room, dropping needles all over the floor and daring the pets to use it as a rest stop.

â On Thanksgiving, it's socially acceptable to belch loudly, loop your thumbs in your belt and fall asleep. It's even encouraged.

â Thanksgiving is not offensive to your Jewish, Muslim and Hindu friends. It's nondenominational. Everyone is allowed to participate "¦ except, you know, those kooky Libertarians.

Thanksgiving is about family. Enjoy yours.

E-mail Steve Ouellette at: ouellette1918@gmail.com