I believe I mentioned back in July that the topic of this fictitious “holiday” would be revisited later in the year, so being a man of my word…

Well, Thanksgiving came and went last week, and back when things were “normal,” which, if you turn on the news, or tuned in to Christmas in July, and again in October through December, or are wondering how some think removing statues, and not teaching the pasts of the country, and/or world we live in will erase history, all seem to be total contrasts of what “normal” used to be and those things and more have wreaked havoc with the idea of “normal.” With this in mind, real “normal,” used to see many people begin, just after Thanksgiving, to decorate their homes, offices, classrooms, etc., and tune their radios, or crank up their turntables (45s and LPs), CD players, MP3 Players, cassette players, and Eight Tracks, in the spirit of Christmas, with music of the holiday wafting through churches, stores, homes, vehicles, and sometimes throughout city business districts as people walk from store to store to do their Christmas shopping and get together with family and/or friends. Oh, those were the days!

Things are different in these times, as by the day that has become known as Black Friday arrives, people are already tired of the Christmas celebrations of July, October, and November, elves have been replaced by Amazon, UPS, and Fed Ex drivers, Santa’s sleigh has been replaced by the trucks those wannabe elves are driving, and when you try and reminisce about Bing Crosby Christmas movies, or Bob Hope and Andy Williams Christmas specials, your grandchildren, and even some of your children make funny faces as they ask you the question, “Who are they?”

So, some of us, who look(ed) forward to the after Thanksgiving traditions of Christmas, but the already celebrations of the holiday throughout the year have wiped off their glitter, the freshness of a new Christmas Season faces a bit of a conundrum and maybe what might be a slightly new and a little different holiday can be added and celebrated to perk up the month between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.

Enter the writers of the Sitcom, Seinfeld, the long running NBC popular program which ran from 1989 to 1998. Enter the main cast of Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander, and Michael Richards.

Enter the cameo appearances by real celebrities, the short-term character players in the sitcom, and the secondary cast who appeared in numerous episodes throughout the entire run of the series. Enter Frank Costanza!

On December 18, 1997, during Season 9, and included in Episode 10, Jerry Stiller’s character, Frank, the father of George Costanza, introduced a new holiday, which he invented, and which was an alternative celebration to the over commercialized holiday of Christmas. He called his special day, Festivus.

Festivus was not a flashy holiday. In place of a Christmas Tree, the celebrators of Festivus put up an unadorned pole made of aluminum, which Frank explained had a “very high strength-to-weight ratio,” and was easily stored in a crawlspace or closet. The pole was not decorated to avoid commercialism, and because Frank found tinsel to be distracting.

Rather than the singing of songs of the day, the two main activities of Festivus, was The Airing of Grievances, usually begun by the host of the day, where, just like it says, people can air any peeves they have with the people in attendance around the table. The other activity was The Feats of Strength, which, though it was never shown in the episode, could be inferred that it was a wrestling match of some sort, featuring a chosen attendee participant and the head of the household scappling on the floor and could not declared over until the head of the household was pinned. Some have made adaptations to the Seinfeld celebration of Festivus, to include weightlifting, headstands, running, and calisthenics in the Feats of Strength part of the celebration. The motto of the holiday was, “A Festivus for the rest of us!”

It’s not “It’s Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas,” or “Jingle Bells,” or “Silent Night,” or even “Dominic the Donkey,” and there are no presents to open, or wrapping paper to tear off, or the traditions of chestnuts roasting on an open fire (or in the oven), or Red, White, and Green Cookies, but it is different. If you’ve had enough of Christmas, that is sad, because the reason for Christmas being what it is, is something we should never forget, regarding what, and why, we celebrate Christmas. If we believe that to be true, then Seinfeld, 28 years ago, maybe wouldn’t have had to offer people an alternative to the traditional December celebration each year.

Looking back at so many wonderful memories of Christmases with family, and as I do, I recall smelling the Christmas Turkey being roasted in the oven, seeing many scurrying around the kitchen, some peeling, then mashing potatoes, some taking pies from one oven rack, some preparing vegetables, setting the table for the feast, someone getting the chestnuts ready for post meal roasting, then snacking, and Dad sharpening the carving knives. I can hear, in my mind, the sounds of laughter, Christmas music, and the little ones telling what Santa brought them this year, already having a half dozen items on next year’s list for Santa. I remember seeing the decorated tree, the canned snow Christmas scene sprayed on the mirror, and the Christmas Stable which Dad made from the pear tree which grew in our backyard for years. All these memories tell me that maybe we shouldn’t do the overkill of Christmas in July (which already has a hugely celebrated holiday), October (which now has a pretty overblown holiday on the 31st), and November (when we celebrate our Veterans, and a day of offering thanks for all we have). Maybe, if there was one Christmas Celebration per year, as there used to be, and as the calendar notes, we wouldn’t need to find another special day to celebrate in our yearly twelfth month.

A point of note, being a big fan of Seinfeld and the laughter and enjoyment it gave me (still does on the syndicated reruns), I do put up a Festivus Pole along with my displays of our Christmas Tree, individual stockings naming all our (inc. Sally’s and mine) children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren across the fireplace mantle, our Christmas stable (the very one Dad made from our pear tree), and I try to, each year, pull out my combination TV-VCR and my VHS tapes of some of the greatest Classic Christmas episodes of some vintage old-time TV shows I watched growing up. So, as much as I’m kind of bushed by the time December 25th gets here, I still look forward to and celebrate the day, its meaning, and the traditions we celebrated growing up, and some that Sally and I made with our kids. So, if you choose to celebrate Festivus, do it as I do, but may we always remember to celebrate as well as we can, the who, and what, is the reason for the Christmas Season.