Have a great time with family and friends and capture your grievances and miracles as you prepare for Festivus 2022!
2022 has been a crazy year and your Festivus 2022 memories should give you laughs for a lifetime. Celebrate the Airing of Grievances and Festivus Miracles! Our Festivus 2022 Memory Page (see below) will help you keep these memories as well as who you shared your Festivus Meal with. Download your sheet today and get ready!!!! Imagine the horror of NOT having a log of your 2022 Festivus activities!!!
Share your Festivus memories by clicking here: Memories
The History of Festivus
In 1997 Frank Costanza shared Festivus with the world in an episode of Seinfeld. It was an alternative to the commercialization and merriment of Christmas. There was an aluminum pole, a meal, an airing of grievances, feats of strength, and the obligatory miracle.
The movement took off and has been mentioned outside of the series for years. In 2020 it has become especially poignant due to the coronavirus pandemic, job losses, quarantine and political turmoil. What better way to capture these new grievances and miracles than with the Festivus dinner and the convenient sheet to help you organize your thoughts?
From Wikipedia:
Some people, most of them inspired by the Seinfeld episode,[1] subsequently began to celebrate the holiday with varying degrees of seriousness. Allen Salkin‘s 2005 book Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us[10] chronicles the early adoption of Festivus. Rabbi Joshua Eli Plaut’s 2012 book A Kosher Christmas: ‘Tis the Season to Be Jewish’ references Festivus.[20] Martin Bodek’s 2020 book The Festivus Haggadah[21] fuses Passover with Festivus.
During the Baltimore Ravens‘ run to the Super Bowl XXXV Championship in 2000, head coach Brian Billick superstitiously issued an organizational ban on the use of the word “playoffs” until the team had clinched its first postseason berth.[22] “Playoffs” was instead referred to as “Festivus” and the Super Bowl as “Festivus Maximus”.[23]
In 2005, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle was declared “Governor Festivus”, and during the holiday season displayed a Festivus Pole in the family room of the Executive Residence in Madison, Wisconsin.[24] Governor Doyle’s 2005 Festivus Pole is now part of the collection of the Wisconsin Historical Museum.[25]
In 2010, a CNN story featuring Jerry Stiller detailed the increasing popularity of the holiday, including US Representative Eric Cantor‘s Festivus fundraiser,[26] and the Christian Science Monitor reported that Festivus was a top trend on Twitter that year.[27]
In 2012, Google introduced a custom search result for the term “Festivus”. In addition to the normal results, an unadorned aluminum pole was displayed running down the side of the list of search results and “A festivus miracle!” prefixes the results count and speed.[28][29] Also in 2012, a Festivus Pole was erected on city property in Deerfield Beach, Florida, alongside religious-themed holiday displays.[30] A similar Festivus Pole was displayed next to religious displays in the Wisconsin State Capitol, along with a banner provided by the Freedom From Religion Foundation advocating for the separation of government and religion.[31]
In 2013 and 2014, a Festivus Pole constructed with 6 feet (1.8 m) of beer cans was erected next to a nativity scene and other religious holiday displays in the Florida State Capitol Building, as a protest supporting separation of church and state.[31] In 2015, the same man was granted permission to display a Festivus pole decorated with a gay pride theme and topped with a disco ball to celebrate the United States Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage, at state capitols in Florida,[32] Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Washington.[33]
In 2016, US Senator Rand Paul released a special Festivus edition of The Waste Report.[34] The Festivus “airing of grievances” has become an annual tradition for Paul on Twitter.[35][36][37]
In 2016, the Tampa Bay Times became the first newspaper to allow readers to submit Festivus grievances through its website, with the promise to publish them on December 23, the day of the Festivus holiday.[38]
In Pittsburgh, an annual public Festivus celebration has been held since 2005, featuring live bands, a Seinfeld trivia contest, and the holiday traditions. In 2017, the Pittsburgh City Paper called its 13th iteration “the longest-running celebration of Sein-Culture in the ‘Burgh”.[40]