Festivus/Christmas

Friday is, of course, Christmas Day. We traditionally host dinner and eat around 1:00 or 2:00 PM. This year, because our daughter Erin has to work on Christmas and can't arrive till the afternoon, we'll eat at 4:00. This is a pretty big change for our family, which this year will include nineteen people at the table--well, tables; even with the leaf added, our main dining table only seats ten. We've always eaten in the early afternoon. Even when we were kids, both my wife's family and mine ate earlier. And this is the second time in two months we've eaten later: Thanksgiving dinner was also moved later in the day because of Erin's work schedule.

Yet no one has said anything about it being too late or that they'll be eating something else instead as a result. Maybe it's that we're all old enough to roll with the punches, tradition be damned, but I like to think that it is in part because no one would want to exclude Erin for the sake of eating at the "normal" time. However I look at it, it seems to me an example of how we make little adjustments in the holiday season to accommodate each other.

Today is Festivus, a holiday introduced years ago on the Seinfeld TV show and which has grown to be "celebrated" by thousands, maybe millions, of people. "A Festivus for the rest of us," as George's father proclaimed, was intended to counteract the commercialized holiday season with a gathering where you tell everyone what's wrong with them and battle through Feats of Strength (for many years, my son's high school Festivus parties included picking up a friend's Ford Fiesta). This year, my son will host, along with his wife now, what I think is his fourteenth or fifteenth consecutive Festivus party. And while the whole premise of the celebration is anti-holiday, it is in fact a gathering of old and new friends to play, laugh, eat and drink together. In fact, falling just before the holiday on which most of them will gather with their blood families to celebrate Christmas, it's a chance to join with their family of friends. That's three consecutive days of celebrating with Family, be it born-into or chosen. That's a pretty good way to spend some of the darkest days of the year.

Click here for a great explanation of Festivus.  Or here for a clip from the show.

Happy Festivus!