Holiday Day – a lost tradition

When Tony and I were in college, we were living far from home (a whopping 2.5 hours from family) and we were talking about how holidays are difficult, trying to get time off and split between families and such. Then, we read a story about a family where the dad was being deployed over seas and so they celebrated all the holidays in one day. This sounded like a really good/fun idea. So, we got down to planning and came up with “Holiday Day” – celebrated on the Second Saturday in September. On this day, we decided to use all of the major (Christian bias) holidays and what they were best known for and mesh them all together in one, long, marathon day of eating, drinking, and general merriment.

So, this is how the day should go – feel free to add a signature drink with each:

1. Wake up to Christmas – everyone gets one gift to open, then you have breakfast of pancakes made with stocking-stuffer candy bits. Drink suggestions: coffee. Start with coffee. And water – you will need it.

2. Mid-morning: Easter egg hunt (adults too – we didn’t have kids when we celebrated) – split into two groups and have each hide the eggs for the other and see who can find all the eggs in the fastest time (save those numbers for later). Drink suggestions: mimosa, sangria

3. Lunch: Thanksgiving – Believe me, you aren’t going to want a full meal – there is lots of eating all day. Have turkey sandwiches, some macaroni and cheese, or whatever small version of your typical Thanksgiving meal. Drink suggestions: wine, beer

4. Mid afternoon – Olympics (okay, not a holiday, but we were trying to get some events that did not revolve around eating). You can do individual Olympics, ie. party games, timed events, corn hole, etc (they don’t have to require athleticism), or you can split into teams if you have enough participants and do team sports: kickball, softball, volleyball, also non-ball sports that I’m sure are out there. Take the points from all competitions (including the Easter Egg Hunt) to figure out the winner. Drink suggestions: STOP. Hydrate – water, Gatorade, whatever. A day of high food and alcohol consumption without hydration will lead to a very non-holiday day on the second Sunday in September.

5. Dinner: 4th of July (regionally specific) – grill out with hotdogs, hamburgers, or whatever you like to grill. You may get crazy and get some sparklers or something. Drink suggestions: beer – cheap beer that your drunk uncle would have brought for the 4th of July.

6. Evening: Halloween: dress as a holiday not represented during the day, then go out on the town for recklessness and merriment. Enjoy all the very confused faces wondering why a group of people are walking around downtown in costume at the beginning of September. This worked really well in Athens, GA where you could find an eclectic mix of people, but we didn’t continue once we moved to much more conservative towns and were fearful of getting arrested…. or shot. Drink suggestions: whatever you want at the bars/pubs.

7. Last one: Celebrate the end of “Holiday Day” the only way you can; New Year’s Eve and since the first year we did it, we forgot about it until after midnight, now the official New Year’s day for Holiday Day is 12:20am. At this time, the day is over and you may go home – but get a taxi or have a friend take you home. Drink suggestions: water, iced water, hot non-caffeinated tea (hydrate – it’s been a long day)

So, our first official Holiday day was September (second Saturday) 2010. The tradition started off small, just Tony’s sister, Lauren and her husband, Cason, joined us. Lucky for us (not Lauren), she was pregnant at the time and so we had our designated driver. I promise that’s not why we invited them. We started the day with small gifts to each other, made pancakes stuffed with cut up snickers, reese’s cups, etc. We had the egg hunt, boys vs girls, then we made up games to play outside for the Olympics, little bit of dinner and then we headed out to Downtown Athens, GA in our costumes. I was St. Patrick’s day, Tony was boxing day, Lauren was Arbor day, and Cason was Cinco de Mayo. We got some weird looks, but weirdos were not uncommon in Athens, so we went along our way and laughed the whole time.

The second annual Holiday Day was the next year, 2011. This time, we had gained somewhat of a following and Tony’s whole family came, including the littlest one that was with us on the first one, but hidden. We also had a friend from work (an anesthesia tech from the vet school). So, in just one year, we had more than doubled our attendance! We had the normal morning, everyone got one gift, then had a rather competitive Easter egg hunt (everything’s a lot more competitive with Tony’s mom) of girls vs boys.

The olympics was a lot of fun this time with so many people joining us. Tony’s sister, Lauren, came up with a ton of party games such as the one pictured where you have to move a cookie from your forehead to your mouth using only your face muscles. Then, we played team sports such as volleyball and kickball. Finally, after a day of eat, drink, and play, we went out on the town with those of age (and willing to go out in costume) and had another great Halloween celebration on the town… in September.

We got a lot of attention that year. Maybe because the first year, it was raining, and the second year it was the night after a UGA football game, so there were a lot of people out that night. We got a few cat calls, one person spewing his disdain for The Saints to Tony, who was clearly dressed as All Saints day, but we also got a lot of people interested in the concept and we all grew hoarse explaining the concept to all the people who asked and they all seemed very excited about the idea and promised (in their drunken stupor) to participate the next year.

Unfortunately, that was the last Holiday Day that we have celebrated. We moved to the tiny town of Newberry, SC for my next job in September and were, honestly, afraid to be anything but straight collar for fear of being excommunicated. Then, the babies started rolling in (India born the next September), moved to Michigan, had more babies, etc. We are hoping to get it all started again. I’m not sure where we will celebrate Halloween in this town yet. Perhaps some breweries – they have really good ones!