A Festivus for the rest of us!!

From me to you. Happy Festivus.

As a huge fan of Seinfeld, I want to wish you all a Happy Festivus! In case you don't love Seinfeld as much as I (or millions of other people) do, let me fill you in.

Festivus is a holiday Frank Costanza (George's dad) made up to fight the commercialism of Christmas. He explains it thus:

Frank Costanza: "Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had, but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way."

Cosmo Kramer: "What happened to the doll?"

Frank Costanza: "It was destroyed. But out of that a new holiday was born: a Festivus for the rest of us!"

Kramer: "That must have been some kind of doll."

Frank Costanza: "She was."

The celebration includes:

The airing of grievances ("I've got a lot of problems with you people!" - Frank Costanza)
Feats of Strength (until George pins his father, Festivus is not over)
Putting up an aluminum pole for decoration ("requires no decoration. I find tinsel distracting." - F.C.)
Recognizing "miracles" that are actually not miracles at all, such as this one:

Gwen: "Jerry!"

Jerry Seinfeld: "Gwen! How did you know I was here?"

Gwen: "Kramer told me!"

Cosmo Kramer: "Another Festivus Miracle!"

Also in this episode, George finds a way to get out of giving Christmas presents to his coworkers by making up a charity called "The Human Fund" and handing out  phony certificates to his coworkers which say, "A donation has been made in your name to the Human Fund."

 It's one of my top three favorite episodes of Seinfeld, and that's saying a lot. Here are some great images of Festivus which I found by searching the interwebs:

Frank shows the pole to Krueger, George's boss.

Frank explains Festivus to Kramer, who
proclaims that it's scratching him where he itches.

I can't even tell you how hilarious this episode is. Besides the introduction to Festivus, other storylines include Kramer going back to work after 12 years of being on strike, and Jerry dating someone who is attractive in some lighting, and hideous in others. It's a classic. But of course, the best parts are the parts about Festivus. For some Festivus highlights, check out this video.

Happy Festivus! (I will not infringe on your rights to celebrate new holidays, unlike Kramer's manager at H&H.)

"Festivus is back! I'll get the pole out of the crawl space!"

"George, Festivus is your heritage; it's part of who you are!"

- Frank Costanza