When you think Thanksgiving, the typical response is family, feast, and football.

However, in recent years, Black Friday shopping has continued to encroach further and further into Thursday evening, with several stores opening their doors at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving and some cyber sales occurring all day.

With these developments, is Black Friday ruining Thanksgiving?

No. Black Friday may be the kickoff event for the holiday shopping season, but participation isn’t mandatory. In fact, the days of crazy doorbusters, endless lines, and large crowds may be limited due to the growing popularity of online shopping.

According to thebalance.com, the number of people shopping at stores in person on Thanksgiving and Black Friday last year decreased by four percent, and online sales rose 18 percent with almost half of those sales being done through mobile shopping.

Plus, this year Amazon will be offering deals all month with the best deals dropping the week leading up to Black Friday. Therefore, people don’t actually have to leave Thanksgiving dinner to get good deals.

In fact, most people don’t leave their house on Thanksgiving for Black Friday sales. According to thebalance.com, in 2016 the largest crowd of people that went Black Friday shopping was actually on Black Friday with 101.4 million people, followed by Saturday with 64 million, Sunday with 33 million, and then Thursday with 29 million.

Some retailers are actually starting to adjust their sales hours to get rid of the all-night shopping hours. For example, last year Target opened Thursday evening but then closed its doors at midnight, and then reopened them 6 a.m. Friday.

People that planned on shopping all night may have closed their Thanksgiving celebrations earlier in order to get a nap in before starting their shopping spree. With stores starting to get rid of the night hours, people that do shop on Thursday evenings won’t have to close Thanksgiving celebrations down early to get some sleep before their evening shopping trip.

People don’t have to participate on Thursday with the increase of online shopping and the decreasing hours in some stores. However, some people see Black Friday as a continuation of their Thanksgiving holiday. Some families have a tradition of going out together to do Christmas shopping and bonding through a night of craziness.

Therefore, Black Friday shouldn’t ruin Thanksgiving. Black Friday doesn’t have to impede on Thursday if you don’t want it to and it can be made into part of the family traditions. Also, with Thanksgiving being centered on making time for family, it shouldn’t matter if that time is spend gorging on turkey and watching football or competing against shoppers to get that toy your younger sibling really wants for Christmas and comparing crazy stories in the car.