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Things You Didn’t Know About Holidays 49

Things You Didn’t Know...

About the Holiday Season

Continued from Page 48

Seeing double? You might be at SantaCon
SantaCon is an annual pub-crawl that
takes place in various cities around the world, in
which people come dressed as Santa Claus (or
sometimes as other Christmas characters). New
York City is the largest SantaCon venue. Not
only are the streets filled with Santas, but the
Santas all tend to be soused.

Boxing Day has nothing to do with prize-
fighting
Boxing Day is an English tradition the
day after Christmas. It got its name because it’s
the day on which families would literally “open
the box” (the alms box) to the poor.
Traditionally, every church in England had an
alms box, into which people would place money
intended for donation. The box was opened on
Boxing Day, and the contents were distributed to
those less fortunate in the parish. The tradition
continues today.
There are three most covered Christmas Can you guess the most popular Hanukka

Other December holidays you may not know tunes and Kwanzaa movies?
Some Christmas songs never seem to get No? Didn’t think so. That’s because
existed
If Boxing Day is a new one for you, old. Of the 24 most-covered Christmas songs, there are none, at least in the mainstream (the
you’ll probably be surprised to hear that these none has been covered fewer than 7,000 times. Hebrew Hammer is a Hanukkah-themed
December holidays exist: The top three are: independent live-action feature film). The only
two mainstream Hanukkah feature films are
• Bathtub Party Day: This holiday falls on • Silent Night: Written in 1818, there are animated: Eight Crazy Nights and An American
December 5, which is also the day 26,496 versions Tail. The only Kwanzaa film that’s been made so
Prohibition was repealed, so perhaps it • White Christmas: Written in 1940, there are far is The Black Candle, a documentary.
actually refers to the “End of Bathtub Gin” 20,721 versions
Party Day. • Jingle Bells: Written in 1857, there are It’s a Wonderful Life was deemed un-
19,080 versions American by the FBI
• Cotton Candy Day: Invented in 1897 and
originally marketed as “fairy floss,” cotton For the first 10 years after it premiered in
candy first became popular at the 1904 A Charlie Brown Christmas almost didn’t 1946, It’s a Wonderful Life, that sweet and
World’s Fair in St. Louis and was renamed in happen seemingly guileless Christmas classic, was on
the 1920s. Why it falls on December 7 One of the most beloved holiday specials the FBI’s radar as suspected Communist
remains a mystery. of all time is A Charlie Brown Christmas, but it propaganda—because it (supposedly) tended to
• National Flashlight Day: Falling on took ages before television executives could make bankers seem like jerks. It was exonerated
December 21, we imagine it has something even convince Charles Schulz to get into the in 1956. We don’t care what those government
to do with lighting the way during the Winter animation game. When it finally got made, CBS guys said. We’ve always loved it, even back
Solstice. executives hated it so much that they almost when it was blacklisted. []
• Festivus: This holiday for “the rest of us” nixed it. Execs from the sponsor, Coca Cola,
arrived in popular culture in the 1990s hated it too upon their first viewing.
thanks to the television show, Seinfeld, but Lucky for fans of Peanuts Gang
it’s really been a thing since 1966. television specials everywhere, A Charlie Brown
Christmas made it to the airwaves anyway,
premiering on December 9, 1965. That night, it
Festivus was invented for TV
Festivus is a non-traditional holiday was seen by approximately half of all American
whose slogan is “A Festivus for the rest of us.” households that owned a television. It’s been a
Festivus traditions include: holiday entertainment staple ever since, and 44
more Peanuts Gang specials have been made for

• Gathering ’round an unadorned metal pole television.
• Airing grievances in a ceremony aptly
called, the “Airing of Grievances” (is it A Christmas Story had humble beginnings
wrong that we’re reminded of Takanakuy The movie, A Christmas Story, has
just a little?) become a Christmas classic, but when it opened
• Feats of Strength, in which “the head of the the week before Thanksgiving 1983, it appeared
household must be pinned” (wrestling-like) on fewer than 900 screens. Thanks to the advent
of home video and cable television, it slowly

Most people believe Festivus originated on the made its way into the mainstream until 1988,
Season 9 episode of Seinfeld entitled, “The when cable network TNT aired its first 12-
Strike,” which first aired on December 18, 1997. showing, 24-hour marathon, imbuing the film
However, the holiday was actually invented in with cult status. The annual marathon is now on
1966 in the household of Dan O’Keefe, the TBS and attracts more than 40 million viewers
television writer credited with writing the each year.
episode.