What a beautiful Saturday morning yesterday was.  We decorated Bigelow Tea to look like the “North Pole” and invited all of the employees to bring their children and grandchildren for a festive event.  Great food, a very funny magician, and of course a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus-it was absolutely wonderful!  The kid’s huge smiles and the parents’ and grandparents’ overwhelming joy was what the holidays are all about.

We have a team at Bigelow Tea that takes months to plan this day and what was so fantastic was I wasn’t sure who was more delighted with the morning, the North Pole team or the little children!  It was a the perfect way to start the holiday season….HO HO HO

Cindi Bigelow

It’s easy to think about family at the holidays. Why not start the celebration with National Family Week, which just happens to coincide with the week of Thanksgiving! That’s right; November 22^nd-28^th is National Family Week in 2009. With Bigelow Tea so deep-rooted in, and committed to family and family values, we’re anticipating more than double the enjoyment!

National Family Week (NFW) is intended to help build strong, successful families; it’s organized by the Alliance for Children and Families. For nearly 40 years the Alliance has supported local efforts across the nation. The top priority this year for NFW is to support the civic engagement work of the Alliance for Children and Families.

So, while planning your Thanksgiving family gathering, why not include some activities for National Family Week? There are plenty of resources online to help you get started! Of course you’ll want to put the pot on to boil and offer up some great Bigelow Tea! Perhaps take it a step further and host a Thanksgiving tea party, including  plenty of wonderful family activities.  It is a  great way to spend time with the ones you love.

Remember, nothing says warm family gathering like a hot tasty pot of Bigelow Tea – it’s all about family and special times together! The best wishes for you and yours this Thanksgiving Holiday as well as for Family week!

Labor Day means different things to different people: big sales or the last chance for a family vacation before school starts; maybe the end of summer, baseball’s pennant race and the beginning of football season!

Image from the Library of Congress

Most importantly, it’s a time to honor working men and women across the country — and none work harder than our team at Bigelow Tea, providing our fans with over 1.2 billion tea bags per year.

Bigelow Tea employs approximately 350 people who enjoy tremendous work opportunities. Maybe that’s why it’s designated as a Winning Workplace and why so many Bigelow employees stay with the family owned business for their entire career!

Employer-worker relations at many companies have not always been so harmonious.  Labor Day has its origins in a desire to overcome labor strife, according to The Labor Movement, by George McNeill, which originated in Boston in 1844. The first Labor Day, however, was celebrated in New York City in 1882 when 10,000 workers paraded (unpaid) to demonstrate the strength of their burgeoning movement. Over the years, states and cities passed ordinances honoring workers, but it was not until 1894 that the U.S. Congress made the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday.

From all of us at the Bigelow Family and Bigelow Tea Family of Workers, have a safe and happy Labor Day!