We all have our holiday traditions, some more bizarre than others. The most bizarre ones take on new life. Many, after the infamous Seinfeld episode, started celebrating Festivus. My family always did so jokingly – though one year my brother did bring home a completely bare fence post from Home Depot to serve as our official Festivus Pole.
I cheerfully participate in the Little Drummer Boy Challenge every year. If you're not familiar with it, the game begins on Black Friday at 12 am and lasts through Christmas Eve at 12 am. The rules are simple – avoid hearing “The Little Drummer Boy,” in any form. If you hear it, you're out. If you make it to Christmas Eve, you win. What do you win? Bragging rights, basically. But half the fun is in the avoidance, comparing notes with friends, and the delightfully wacky Facebook community the game has developed. Every year, the struggle is dedicated to the first to publicly admit they fell. This year, it's for Mike. I don't know him, but I fight in his name. Or...I did, until December 6, when I got cocky and thought I could go to the bank without headphones on. My hubris got rumpa-pum-pummed. I have been playing this game for six years and won exactly once. It's harder than you'd think.
Then there was the time my dad put the Christmas cards for his coworkers in a drawer and promptly forgot about them...until July, when he cleaned out that drawer. He gave them out anyway, and had half the office convinced our family celebrated Christmas in July. I may or may not have tried to use this as an excuse the last few years, when I've been too busy to get my own holiday cards out on time. (Valentine's Day is a holiday, right?)
My newest offbeat tradition, though, is Squadsmas. I'd lay out all the rules for Squadsmas, but we haven't defined them yet. That's part of the charm. All we know so far is it's three weeks long and started last week. My crew at work invented the holiday, since we needed a little something to keep our morale high. Working in mental health is very rewarding, but can be stressful, especially around the holidays. Enter Squadsmas. A holiday celebration of our squad. Our friendships. Each other. And, really, it's the little things that make it fun. Sure, it's silly to declare a new holiday on a random day in December. It's even sillier to write that holiday on a survey asking what winter holiday one celebrates. And the silliness reaches peak levels when we tape memes all over the staff lounge. But not only does it keep our spirits up, it reinforces the chief philosophy that keeps my team working together so well – I got your back. That's so, so crucial in our line of work. And it's always good for a laugh when people ask us to explain... Besides, anything that can keep us chuckling through the end of the dumpster fire that 2016 has been is fine by me.
So own your holiday traditions, even – no, especially – the goofy ones. The wilder, the better, I say. There's usually a great story behind them. Don't be afraid to be weird. You'll probably be happier for it.
