Random Christmas Eve idea: we could really improve the holiday season by moving Thanksgiving back one month, to the last Friday before the last Sunday in October. The big holiday would be on Friday, then kids could all do the trick-or-treat thing on Saturday night, and adults could have their parties on the actual 31st, whenever that might fall. Moving the date would make the holiday season less of a slog, would eliminate the whole "Black Friday/Cyber Monday" madness, and would keep more people off the road during the snowy season in the northern half of the country. It would also be better for any university that uses the semester system by providing a break midway through the term, instead of having one right about when papers are due and exams start. For primary and secondary schools that use a quarter system, the new date would fall close enough to the current end of the first quarter that the school calendar could be adjusted to match. I don't see any downsides to the idea except that everyone would hate it, and retailers would scream bloody murder. But other than that, no downsides at all...
Update 2012-12-28: The timing of Election Day is not dependent on any holiday, but moving Thanksgiving up would mean that moving the election to the end of the month or early December would be a good idea. A later date would shorten the transition period in presidential years and reduce the amount of time available for Congress to perform unaccountable mischief in a lame duck session. It would also be nice to have the election a couple of weeks away from either holiday, since politics and family gatherings tend to create tension.
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