Duration: 1st December – 31st December 2020
Number of books: 7
Hosted by: Crazy Challenge Connection
A FESTIVUS FOR THE REST OF US!
DURATION : December 1-31, 2020
Happy Festivus! Have you aired your grievances or demonstrated your feats of strength around the pole yet? It’s nearly time to celebrate, so dig out that aluminum pole, start training for the Feats of Strength and get to work on your list for the Airing of Grievances!
THE TASKS :
1. Festivus garnered national attention after a 1997 episode of Seinfeld, in which Frank Costanza (the father of one of the show’s main characters), decided that, instead of celebrating a crassly commercialized holiday, he was going to start his own tradition – Festivus. The holiday is celebrated on December 23rd, because Frank wanted to “get a leg up on Christmas.”
✳ Read a book set at Christmas time OR a book you added to your to-read list on the 23rd of any month; tell us the month and year – Christmas in Silver Springs by Brenda Novak
2. While most people know the holiday from Seinfeld, it actually originated with the family of Dan O’Keefe, a member of the show’s staff. His father, Daniel O’Keefe Sr., originally created Festivus as a way to have “a secular holiday not burdened by the religion and commercialism of the holiday season.” According to family folklore, the first Festivus occurred in 1966, with the O’Keefes making it an annual tradition thereafter.
O’Keefe didn’t want to include his family’s secrets on TV, but when some of the show’s writers found out about it, they begged him to allow them to work it into an episode and share its brilliant weirdness with the world. Even though most of the O’Keefe Festivus traditions did not appear in the Seinfeld version of the holiday, one important O’Keefe element did. The phrase “A Festivus for the Rest of Us”, spoken by Frank Costanza in the Seinfeld episode, was actually an O’Keefe family Festivus motto. It initially referred to those remaining after the death of O’Keefe’s grandmother, then later coming to mean in general a forward-looking focus on life and the living.
✳ Read a book with a repeated number in the total page count (331 and 199 work, 252 does not); tell us how many pages OR a book in which a secret is grudgingly shared; using spoiler tags, briefly explain – Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas by Adam Kay (144 pp.)
3. After the episode aired and Festivus started to be celebrated outside of the O’Keefe family, its inventor was awestruck. “Have we accidentally invented a cult?” he wondered to the New York Times. Now, Festivus is celebrated from coast to coast and, in particular, on the internet.
✳ Read a book by an author whose last name begins with O’ (like Clare O’Donohue and Barbara O’Neal); post a link to the author’s GR page OR a book that is on a CURRENT best-sellers list; post a link to the list and tell us where the book falls on that list
4. THE FESTIVUS POLE
The Festivus Pole was a creation of Seinfeld script writers; it was not a part of the O’Keefe family tradition. The Festivus Pole, an unadorned aluminum pole, is the ultimate symbol of an anti-Christmas holiday: it is plain looking, unencumbered by branches and decorations, and relatively inexpensive. You can buy an aluminum pole from your local hardware store, buy an official Festivus pole from a variety of places on the web – or just use an old lamp pole. Anything that is non-commercial and non-flashy exhibits the true spirit of Festivus.
✳ Read a book with a pole of some sort shown prominently on the cover; post the cover (bonus for a plain, unadorned pole!) OR a book that was inexpensive to obtain – The Bad Mothers’ Book Club by Keris Stainton
5. FESTIVUS DINNER
What should you serve at your Festivus dinner? Since the Seinfeld episode aired in 1997 the traditional meal for Festivus became known as Spaghetti or Meatloaf, because nobody could actually identify the meal. With the advent of clearer television, it is now identified as slices of meatloaf on a bed of lettuce. Although the notion of serving meatloaf on lettuce seems odd to some, this is an odd family celebrating an odd holiday, so it seems to be perfectly acceptable. By comparison, the O’Keefe family dinner featured a main course of turkey, ham, beef stew or lamb chops with pecan pie as dessert.
✳ Read a book by an author whose first and last initials can be found in either MEATLOAF *or* SPAGHETTI; post a link to the author’s GR page (a letter can only be used as many times as it appears in the word) OR a book in which a family sits down to dinner together; quote the excerpt and tell us the location/page number – A Kiss Before the Apocalypse by Thomas E. Sniegoski
6. FESTIVUS AIRING OF GRIEVANCES
The Festivus Airing of Grievances takes place immediately after the Festivus dinner has been served. Each participant tells friends and family of all the instances where they disappointed him or her that year. The Seinfeld Airing of Grievances is modeled after the O’Keefe Family Festivus, where family members were invited to recite their complaints into a cassette tape recorder. To avoid hurt feelings and repercussions, try to keep your grievances light-hearted. After all, it’s Festivus, not an intervention!
✳ Read a book that ended up being a disappointment; using spoiler tags, briefly tell us why OR a book whose title begins with G; ALL words count! – It’s Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han (Belly regressed in her maturity again)
7. FESTIVUS FEATS OF STRENGTH
Although not part of the O’Keefe family tradtion, a Seinfeld-based Festivus celebration is not complete without the Feats of Strength, considered to be the final tradition of Festivus. In accordance with Seinfeld tradition, Festivus is not complete until the head of the household is wrestled to the floor and pinned. However, one thing to consider for your Festivus Party is to have Feats of Strength that do not require a visit to the emergency room and/or long term physiotherapy. Some alternatives: thumb wrestling, beer pong, video game boxing and board games.
✳ Read a book in which two or more characters compete in a game of some sort; tell us the game OR a book that is the last book needed to finish a challenge other than this one; tell us the challenge (can be from any group or a personal challenge) – Cherish Hard by Nalini Singh (rugby)
Sources include :
Festivus
Festivus Holiday Origins
Festivus Web
Earth and Skye 