Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. A time when people dedicate a whole day to giving thanks. They will decorate their homes with colorful lights, snowflakes, and gingerbread men, and then…turn into savages.

As soon as the turkey is done and the last piece of pie has disappeared, that one day between Thanksgiving and Christmas that makes people lose all sense of human decency will arrive –Black Friday.

If you think I exaggerate when I say “savages,” check out this article ‘Seven Black Friday Horror Stories’ from The Daily Caller (but beware: lots of pop-ups).

Some of the incidents reported there are:

Wal-Mart employee trampled to death

34-year-old Wal-Mart employee Jdimytai Damour was trampled to death by a mob of customers in 2008 at a Long Island Wal-Mart.

When police arrived to help Damour, they too were trampled by the crowd.

Woman pepper-sprays other shoppers to get an Xbox

At a Los Angeles Wal-Mart in 2011, a woman brought out a can of pepper spray and started spraying customers so that she could get an Xbox.

The store had opened at 10 p.m. Thanksgiving night, and soon after opening the employees brought out a box of Xbox game consoles. It was then that the woman brought out her pepper spray and began her attack.

She later turned herself in after her attack had injured 20 people.

Collapsed, dying man stepped over and ignored

In 2011 at a West Virginia Target, 61-year-old Walter Vance fell ill and collapsed onto the floor. However, despite being in the middle of the walkway, shoppers paid him no attention and simply walked right over his limp body.

Luckily, an off-duty nurse happened to be walking by and performed CPR.

Vance was taken to the hospital that day where he later died.

These are extreme cases of the Black Friday chaos, but even here on Maui, the aloha spirit seems to take a break when it comes to those Black Friday sales.

These are some Black Friday horror stories shared with me by Kamehameha Maui students.

(Editor’s Note: While it is our policy not to use anonymous sources, the sources of these stories have been anonymized to keep peace among members of our small ‘ohana.)

A junior shared an incident that occurred with her mother at a local Sears.

The student was shopping with her mother when they spotted the last DVD player on the shelf. As her mother grabbed the player, a man also grabbed the box saying that he had his hand on it first.

The two argued with both hands still on the box when the student’s mother suddenly pulled the player from the man’s hand and hit him with it. She then put the player in her cart and continued shopping.

A freshman recalls a time when he was just seven years old shopping with his mom at Wal-Mart. He had just placed a toy into his mother’s cart when another boy appeared from nowhere and snatched it from the cart. The freshman said his mother, enraged, ran the boy over with her cart and retrieved the toy.

Another junior remembers several Black Friday disasters. One time, she said she was shopping with her mother and aunt at Wal-Mart. They had a strategy to split up, each person assigned to gather specific products.

The student said she had gotten nearly everything on her list except the last item — a kitchen spoon. As she entered the cooking aisle, she saw that most of the shelves were bare, save a single spoon. She picked up the spoon thinking she had completed her list when a young girl grabbed the other end of it.

They both tugged back and forth on the spoon when, suddenly, the other girl let go of the spoon. Seizing this opportunity, the student hit her opponent on the head with the spoon and ran.

What is it about Black Friday that brings out the worst in people? I guess it just takes great bargains and half-priced merchandise to send shoppers into a frenzy.

So, here’s a suggestion. Instead of waiting in endless queues and fighting the crowds, how about just taking one more day to digest that delicious turkey dinner surrounded by family and friends and reflecting on what you’re really thankful for.