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  (Photo: REUTERS/Eric Thayer)
  Customers shop at Toys "R" Us in New York November 24, 2011. Stores looking to grab as big a piece as possible of what is expected to be a middling holiday shopping season pushed post-Thanksgiving openings into Thursday evening, getting an early start on "Black Friday," the traditional start to the U.S. holiday shopping season.

Instead of standing in long lines and storming aisles this Black Friday, some Americans will be protesting what's known as the "Black Friday Creep" – retailers like Target and Walmart kicking off the holiday shopping season as early as 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, which protesters say keeps workers from enjoying the holiday with their families.

Charlotte Hill, spokeswoman for the petition website Change.org, told USA Today that by Sunday, Nov. 20, 91 petitions against the "Black Friday Creep" had been launched. She expects the number of petitions to surpass last year's record of 150 come Thursday.

The petitions include titles such as "Target: Take the high road and save Thanksgiving" and "Kmart: Give your employees their holiday!"

"A 9 p.m. opening disgusts me and symbolizes everything that is wrong with this country," wrote C. Renee on her Change.org petition aimed at Target.

Another method of protest is the physical picketing of stores opening on Thanksgiving Day. Reports indicate that on Nov. 22, picketers will be setting up shop in front of Walmarts and Targets across the country to protest their early opening hours.

In addition to the protests, some have been asking if consumers themselves aren't to blame for the so-called Black Friday Creep.

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Jennifer Waters, writing for The Wall Street Journal's Market Watch, says we have "no one but ourselves, or our neighbors, to blame" for the "Black Friday Creep."

"It makes sense then for retailers to just open the doors. They wouldn't if we didn't walk through them," Waters writes.

The Mountain View Patch agreed that the real issue with the "Black Friday Creep" is consumers choosing to take advantage of it.

"Consumers are getting caught in the middle, debating whether or not to buy into the commercialism of the holiday," reads the Mountain View Patch.

"Some may wish that people reverenced Thanksgiving as a sacred day, set aside to give sincere thanks to God for our many blessings. Apparently, they don't anymore. Or they think they can walk and chew gum at the same time," writes Bill Blankschaen on Patheos.com.

"The reality is that people have a choice – if you don't like it, work somewhere else or shop somewhere else. Somehow I don't think that many people will have the courage to do either as we tend to worship our next paychecks," Blankschaen added.