Monday, December 19, 2005

Festivus for the rest of us!

Last night Tara and I started a new tradition. We joined forces to bring our friends a new holiday tradition. FESTIVUS!
If you've watched Seinfeld you might know that Festivus is a holiday made up by Frank Costanza. The Internet has this to say about Festivus:

Festivus is a non-denominational alternate Christmas-time holiday featured on episode No. 166 "The Strike" on the sitcom Seinfeld. Festivus was created by Frank Costanza after getting into a fight in a toy store when he and another man both grabbed for the last doll in the place. Frustrated at the commercialization of Christmas, Frank created Festivus.
Celebrated on December 23rd, the pseudo-festival had a traditional undecorated eight-foot aluminum pole (no tinsel, or ornaments), a father-son wrestling match ("The Feats of Strength") and the The Airing of Grievances, when each member at the gathering sat around the dinner table and insultingly counted down the reasons why other family members were such a disappointment throughout that year. The main Festivus meal consisted of spaghetti (or what looked like meatloaf?) covered in a red sauce.

No gifts are exchanged at Festivus. Mike supplied the traditional festivus pole and we added our own Festivus tradition, the wearing of the Ugly Christmas Sweater. Anyone not participating in this new Festivus tradition had to wear the Festivus Antlers of Shame.

Almost everyone was in the Festivus spirit, sporting their Ugly Christmas Sweater, or Festivus Antlers of Shame. Upon arrival, guests had their photograph taken with the Festivus Pole.
We drank wine and beer, ate the traditional Festivus meal of spagetti covered in red sauce, and of course aired our grievances with Mike's new Festivus Airing of the Grievances game, which was expertly duct taped to the Festivus Pole for the occasion.

After the last of our Festivus Guests left, Tara and I declared Festivus a complete success to be repeated on a yearly basis.

Happy Frickin' Festivus, Y'all!

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