Who will join me in my war on Festivus?

[deucemagnet]

Back in 1997, right after the Seinfeld "Festivus" episode, it was kind of funny when you said, "I'm celebrating Festivus this year!"

It remained mildly amusing up until about 2001.

It stopped being funny altogheter around 2004.

Now it's just annoying.

R.I.P. "I'm celebrating Festivus this year!" 1997 - 2006.

[some guy]

1. Apparently no one...

sorry about that. :(

I would (maybe), but I never watched Seinfeld, so I don't know what Festivus is.

:bounce: :bounce:

[MoseyWalker]

2. mmmmmmmmmmm........can't do it

I'm still wearing a bro

[LeftyMom]

3. I would but

I'm allergic to most Christmas trees (and to dust, so the fake ones are also problematic) and as a result, a pole that doesn't require a hefty payment to the Christmas Tree mafia or make me sneeze sounds real appealing to me.

Still, I agree it's a rather worn out pop culture reference.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

4. It's sad

They co-opted Frank's holiday and made it all that he hates.

"Festivus is dead to me".

[Starbucks Anarchist]

5. I got a lot of problems with you people!

:rofl:

[deucemagnet]

7. I got a lot of problems with Festivus!

Ironically, my war on Festivus is very much in the spirit of Festivus.

[driver8]

6. I met the guy who wrote the "Festivus" episode.

His name is Daniel O'Keefe and he used to write on the Tonight Show with my best friend. His father created the holiday...


Originally created in 1966 by former Reader's Digest editor Daniel O'Keefe, who cites Samuel Beckett's famous play Krapp's Last Tape as his inspiration, Festivus sharply departs from the stock Christmas template of abundant peace and goodwill, offering in lieu an opportunity for unbridled airing of grievances; climaxing with a family fight in which the head of the household must be pinned to the ground to achieve closure.

Weird as it may seem to those of us who interpret the Christmas season differently, O'Keefe, responding to internal politics in his workplace, found Festivus a form of release. According to fellow-author Allen Salkin, the holiday's creator recorded a litany of personal grievances on any day between May and December each year. Eventually, the date was fixed as December 23.

O'Keefe's son, Dan, a writer for the blockbuster sitcom, Seinfeld, revived the concept as a plot device in an episode of the show entitled The Strike, which first aired on December 18, 1997. Many people, influenced or inspired by Seinfeld, now observe the holiday with varying degrees of seriousness, although most celebrants include the symbolic bare aluminum pole as their festival centrepiece, replacing the festooned Christmas tree.

Embraced as a response to the commercialisation of Christmas, the core Festivus celebration includes five major elements. Apart from the pole and airing of grievances, there is the Festivus Dinner, a menu that deliberately avoids traditional Christmas fare by banning poultry and pork, often going for a banal entrie like meatloaf. Drinking is optional.

In the Feat of Strength ritual, the head of the family tests his physical ability against a participant of the patriarch's choosing. The selected person is allowed to decline only if he (or she) has something better to do. There is also a Festivus Miracle which, by regular definition, could range from common coincidence to the spectacularly supernatural.

This