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Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us
Looking to add a little bitterness to your holiday season? Then FESTIVUS is the book you cannot do without! Take Frosty out behind the woodshed and hide your menorahs, kinaras, diyas and whatevahs...the time has come for Festivus! The event celebrated by Frank Costanza (Jerry Stiller) on Seinfeld, in which a bare aluminum pole replaces all holiday and religious symbols, where participants compete in "feats of strength" and undertake the "airing of grievances," has transcended television to become a worldwide phenomenon. In this side-splitting romp through the Festivus landscape, Allen Salkin meets Miss Festivus, tastes Festivus beer, and ponders the Festivus snail (along with Festy the cat), showing how anyone with a little creativity-and a dash of Costanza-can celebrate a Happy Festivus!
144 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
November 20, 2017
A very enjoyable read!
I bring this book out every year...at around the same time as I get the Festivus pole out of the crawl space. :-)
I bring this book out every year...at around the same time as I get the Festivus pole out of the crawl space. :-)
November 26, 2017
This book may have more interest and/or meaning for fans of Seinfeld. I’ve never watched the show, so a significant amount of the content, discussing the introduction of Festivus to the general public on an episode of Seinfeld and the making of that episode, were of no interest to me at all. There was a little information attempting to paint Festivus as a celebration that predates even the ancient Romans – a spontaneous celebration about nothing in particular, or partying just for the sake of partying, and thumbing its nose at the intense preparations and expectations of traditional holiday celebrations like Christmas.
If so, an entire book about how to put on a Festivus celebration, complete with getting an aluminum pole (of no particular size or type), sending invitations, making party favors, and recipes for dishes and drinks, seems antithetical to the entire concept of a party that shuns party planning and social pressure to put on a show of celebration. Much of the book provides examples of ways that people have celebrated Festivus, with photos and essays. These were probably a lot more fun to engage in than to read about. The most interesting part of the book to me, and regrettably only lightly touched on, is the way Festivus has been used in the ongoing battle in the US over displays of religious holidays on public/government property.
As a guide for putting on your own Festivus in the style of Seinfeld, I suppose it’s a good one. For anyone who is not a Seinfeld fan or interested in hosting a Seinfeld-style Festivus celebration, your life won’t be any the poorer for skipping this book.
This was the ebook version, borrowed from my public library. I read this for The 16 Tasks of the Festive Season, as a Holiday Book Joker. I’ll be using it for square 12, Tasks for Festivus: Post your personal list of 3 Festivus Miracles –OR– post a picture of your Festivus pole (NOTHING pornographic, please!), –OR– Perform the Airing of Grievances: name 5 books you’ve read this year that have disappointed you - tell us in tongue-lashing detail why and how they failed to live up to expectations.
If so, an entire book about how to put on a Festivus celebration, complete with getting an aluminum pole (of no particular size or type), sending invitations, making party favors, and recipes for dishes and drinks, seems antithetical to the entire concept of a party that shuns party planning and social pressure to put on a show of celebration. Much of the book provides examples of ways that people have celebrated Festivus, with photos and essays. These were probably a lot more fun to engage in than to read about. The most interesting part of the book to me, and regrettably only lightly touched on, is the way Festivus has been used in the ongoing battle in the US over displays of religious holidays on public/government property.
As a guide for putting on your own Festivus in the style of Seinfeld, I suppose it’s a good one. For anyone who is not a Seinfeld fan or interested in hosting a Seinfeld-style Festivus celebration, your life won’t be any the poorer for skipping this book.
This was the ebook version, borrowed from my public library. I read this for The 16 Tasks of the Festive Season, as a Holiday Book Joker. I’ll be using it for square 12, Tasks for Festivus: Post your personal list of 3 Festivus Miracles –OR– post a picture of your Festivus pole (NOTHING pornographic, please!), –OR– Perform the Airing of Grievances: name 5 books you’ve read this year that have disappointed you - tell us in tongue-lashing detail why and how they failed to live up to expectations.
February 6, 2013
Cute, fun read -- but inconsequential and I was ready to be done by the time it ended. Kindle quotes:
A Festivus miracle to me would be not having to give anybody a gift during the time of year we call “the holidays,” and not feeling like I’ve shortchanged anyone or hurt their feelings. - location 39
The TV version of Festivus featured a bare aluminum pole in the place of honor many families reserve for a tinsel-draped Christmas tree, an “Airing of Grievances” in which friends, family, and acquaintances accused one another of being a disappointment, and “Feats of Strength,” requiring that the holiday not end until the head of the household was wrestled to the floor and pinned. - location 65
In other words, Festivus for the O’Keefes strived to be an expression of what was happening organically within the family’s brains—not something that they were told by outside forces should be happening inside them. There was no pole, but there were Airings of Grievances into a tape recorder and wrestling matches between the younger Daniel and his two brothers. The younger Daniel grew up and became a writer on Seinfeld. There he appropriated and adapted the family holiday for a subplot of episode #166 - location 134
For the extended Kehler family, Festivus comes in July. An aluminum tent pole is erected in the center of an Ontario campground and an Airing of Grievances is held around the fire. “People tell embarrassing stories about themselves,” says Therese Kehler, 40, an editor at the Edmonton Journal, “and kids are allowed to air grievances against their parents.” - location 222
This unadorned length of lusterless metal or something that looks like metal is the one totem of Festivus that nearly everyone agrees is essential. “It has a starkness that sets it apart from the pageantry of other winter holidays,” - location 235
On the Seinfeld Festivus episode, the character Frank Costanza says his pole is aluminum, a substance he praises for its “very high strength-to-weight ratio.” In the real world, Festivus celebrants have used cardboard tubes painted silver, aluminum foil, and heating pipes. - location 241
Dumpsters outside building demolitions often hold ample lengths of used conduits, popes, and flagpoles. These items will be free, but while diving in the Dumpster, veterans advise, it is best to avoid touching anything that looks like asbestos or that has hair. - location 252
One day, when Tony Leto was sitting around the offices of The Wagner Companies, a railing maker in Milwaukee, he read an article about the spread of Festivus, a holiday which requires straight lengths of aluminum. “We make straight lengths of aluminum,” Mr. Leto, the executive vice president of sales and marketing, thought. He met with his boss. “I told him,” Mr. Leto recalls, “ ‘We’re not going to make a fortune, but we’re going to have fun and we get a little attention.’” They bought the domain name festivuspoles.com. Research and development followed. A product emerged. The full-sized model, an unpolished six-foot pole with a snap-together base, was put online in October 2005 for $38. The table-top model, three-feet, sells for $30. The governer of Wisconsin, Jim Doyle, a Seinfeld fan, proudly posed with his Wagner pole that year and donated it to the Wisconsin historical museum in 2006. Blogs that mentioned Festivus started linking to the Wagner site. The Associated Press wrote about the company’s poles and they appeared on The Today Show. “We were getting 25 orders an hour in the days before Festivus,” Mr. Leto says. “And on Festivus Eve, people were paying $200 for next day delivery.” The company sold over 1,700 poles during the 2006 season and 2,100 in 2007. Working at Wagner is now cool. Mr. Leto wishes his barber Happy Festivus. “How much fun can there be to the aluminum railing business?” Mr. Leto asks. “This gives us something to laugh about.” - location 260
For their seven annual Festivus gatherings so far, Lianne and Mark Yarvis of Portland, Oregon, have invented their own tradition that specifies the pole must be “borrowed” and brought by a guest. A flagpole with a gold eagle on top has been among those that have served. The pole is then passed around during the Airing of Grievances. Whosoever holds the pole must grieve. “Some people are shy about it, but if you’re handed the pole it’s clearly your turn,” Lianne, 36, says. “It puts people on the spot. It helps break the shyness. We don’t want anybody to weasel out.” - location 289
A warning: After limbo, the pole, now loose on the dance floor, cannot be trusted. “We used a coatrack one year,” Sara says. “It got smashed all up and ended up in bed with me. I passed out and I have no idea what happened. I woke up the next morning and it was all in pieces in my bed.” - location 309
Mini-Pole Party Favor MATERIALS plaster of Paris container and stir stick for mixing plaster 1-inch-tall terra-cotta (also known as unglazed clay) pot 2-to 3-inch-long straight nail with a narrow (not flat) head - location 338
Many real-world Festivites simply copy Costanza, handing out Human Fund cards. Others do give actual gifts. These have included used ChapSticks left in pockets from long-ago ski trips, balky handcuffs, and annoying talking dolls—all of which seem to establish a universal Festivus gift creed: Give only something you don’t want that you expect the recipient doesn’t want either. - location 373
Shrimp Impaled on Mini Festivus Poles Wait until a good number of guests have arrived and walk out of the kitchen carrying this while announcing the name of the dish. Stunned silence will be followed by an outburst of group glee, screams of hilarity, praises of your cleverness, and, finally, satisfied palates—because this appetizer is delicious. 2 pounds shrimp 1 cup apricot jam 3 tablespoons horseradish 3 tablespoons whole grain mustard 2 teaspoons chili sauce with garlic 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons baking soda 20 3-inch stainless steel nails, or as many as you plan to use rubbing alcohol - location 385
“Moderate drinking of St. Festivus Ale,” he warns, “encourages the Airing of Grievances. Heavy drinking encourages Feats of Strength.” - location 504
a group in Missouri asks everyone at their party to write down a grievance on a piece of paper and then stuff it inside the Festivus pole. At the end of the night, the pole, made of cardboard painted silver, is broken open like a piÑata, papers spill out like candy, and the grievances are read aloud. - location 576
At Krista Soroka’s bash in Tampa, a fake-leather ledger book waits on a side table. Guests approach and enter grievances in it all night long: gripes about the injustice of Ronnie getting a girlfriend, the engorged size of the New York Yankees payroll, the pathetic state of Florida’s interstate road system and “the worst power grid ever.” The book is kept year-round on Soroka’s coffee table for visitors to mull over. - location 617
“It was another kind of way with dealing with something else that was going on at the time: the rebelliousness of the son against the father and the father trying to prove he was still stronger than the son,” Stiller continues. “It was like King Lear in Queens.” - location 711
In Tucson, Arizona, Trevor and Janet Hare threw their first annual Festivus party in December 1997 just a few days after the first-ever airing of the Seinfeld Festivus episode. “I wound up wrestling all my nephews,” Trevor, a conservation biologist, says. “Until 1999, when I threw my back out doing it.” Things at the Hare Festivus are less lumbar-intensive now. “We have impromptu arm wrestling and leg wrestling.” - location 714
Most popular is the thumb-wrestling tournament, held in a leopard-spotted, red-pillared, pizza-box-sized ring. Contestants slip thumbs into tiny wrestling masks and work their hands up into the ring from underneath. Once inside the ropes, they battle until one thumb is pinned. The winner is awarded the victor’s outfit, a red-and-black felt cape with a bow tie and rhinestones that fits snugly over the opposable digit that sets man apart from the beasts. Another body-part-testing FOS at Julianne’s party is the head-dunking-in-ice challenge. Whoever can keep his or her face held underwater in ice water the longest wins a pair of handcuffs. - location 726
INTERLUDE: (Here announcer extolls the specific virtues of the newly crowned Miss Festivus. For example:) She once kissed the drummer for the Lemonheads! She came very close to doing well on her MCAT! For some reason she calls pants “trousers”! For a female, she’s reasonably proficient at barbecue! - location 981
A Festivus miracle to me would be not having to give anybody a gift during the time of year we call “the holidays,” and not feeling like I’ve shortchanged anyone or hurt their feelings. - location 39
The TV version of Festivus featured a bare aluminum pole in the place of honor many families reserve for a tinsel-draped Christmas tree, an “Airing of Grievances” in which friends, family, and acquaintances accused one another of being a disappointment, and “Feats of Strength,” requiring that the holiday not end until the head of the household was wrestled to the floor and pinned. - location 65
In other words, Festivus for the O’Keefes strived to be an expression of what was happening organically within the family’s brains—not something that they were told by outside forces should be happening inside them. There was no pole, but there were Airings of Grievances into a tape recorder and wrestling matches between the younger Daniel and his two brothers. The younger Daniel grew up and became a writer on Seinfeld. There he appropriated and adapted the family holiday for a subplot of episode #166 - location 134
For the extended Kehler family, Festivus comes in July. An aluminum tent pole is erected in the center of an Ontario campground and an Airing of Grievances is held around the fire. “People tell embarrassing stories about themselves,” says Therese Kehler, 40, an editor at the Edmonton Journal, “and kids are allowed to air grievances against their parents.” - location 222
This unadorned length of lusterless metal or something that looks like metal is the one totem of Festivus that nearly everyone agrees is essential. “It has a starkness that sets it apart from the pageantry of other winter holidays,” - location 235
On the Seinfeld Festivus episode, the character Frank Costanza says his pole is aluminum, a substance he praises for its “very high strength-to-weight ratio.” In the real world, Festivus celebrants have used cardboard tubes painted silver, aluminum foil, and heating pipes. - location 241
Dumpsters outside building demolitions often hold ample lengths of used conduits, popes, and flagpoles. These items will be free, but while diving in the Dumpster, veterans advise, it is best to avoid touching anything that looks like asbestos or that has hair. - location 252
One day, when Tony Leto was sitting around the offices of The Wagner Companies, a railing maker in Milwaukee, he read an article about the spread of Festivus, a holiday which requires straight lengths of aluminum. “We make straight lengths of aluminum,” Mr. Leto, the executive vice president of sales and marketing, thought. He met with his boss. “I told him,” Mr. Leto recalls, “ ‘We’re not going to make a fortune, but we’re going to have fun and we get a little attention.’” They bought the domain name festivuspoles.com. Research and development followed. A product emerged. The full-sized model, an unpolished six-foot pole with a snap-together base, was put online in October 2005 for $38. The table-top model, three-feet, sells for $30. The governer of Wisconsin, Jim Doyle, a Seinfeld fan, proudly posed with his Wagner pole that year and donated it to the Wisconsin historical museum in 2006. Blogs that mentioned Festivus started linking to the Wagner site. The Associated Press wrote about the company’s poles and they appeared on The Today Show. “We were getting 25 orders an hour in the days before Festivus,” Mr. Leto says. “And on Festivus Eve, people were paying $200 for next day delivery.” The company sold over 1,700 poles during the 2006 season and 2,100 in 2007. Working at Wagner is now cool. Mr. Leto wishes his barber Happy Festivus. “How much fun can there be to the aluminum railing business?” Mr. Leto asks. “This gives us something to laugh about.” - location 260
For their seven annual Festivus gatherings so far, Lianne and Mark Yarvis of Portland, Oregon, have invented their own tradition that specifies the pole must be “borrowed” and brought by a guest. A flagpole with a gold eagle on top has been among those that have served. The pole is then passed around during the Airing of Grievances. Whosoever holds the pole must grieve. “Some people are shy about it, but if you’re handed the pole it’s clearly your turn,” Lianne, 36, says. “It puts people on the spot. It helps break the shyness. We don’t want anybody to weasel out.” - location 289
A warning: After limbo, the pole, now loose on the dance floor, cannot be trusted. “We used a coatrack one year,” Sara says. “It got smashed all up and ended up in bed with me. I passed out and I have no idea what happened. I woke up the next morning and it was all in pieces in my bed.” - location 309
Mini-Pole Party Favor MATERIALS plaster of Paris container and stir stick for mixing plaster 1-inch-tall terra-cotta (also known as unglazed clay) pot 2-to 3-inch-long straight nail with a narrow (not flat) head - location 338
Many real-world Festivites simply copy Costanza, handing out Human Fund cards. Others do give actual gifts. These have included used ChapSticks left in pockets from long-ago ski trips, balky handcuffs, and annoying talking dolls—all of which seem to establish a universal Festivus gift creed: Give only something you don’t want that you expect the recipient doesn’t want either. - location 373
Shrimp Impaled on Mini Festivus Poles Wait until a good number of guests have arrived and walk out of the kitchen carrying this while announcing the name of the dish. Stunned silence will be followed by an outburst of group glee, screams of hilarity, praises of your cleverness, and, finally, satisfied palates—because this appetizer is delicious. 2 pounds shrimp 1 cup apricot jam 3 tablespoons horseradish 3 tablespoons whole grain mustard 2 teaspoons chili sauce with garlic 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons baking soda 20 3-inch stainless steel nails, or as many as you plan to use rubbing alcohol - location 385
“Moderate drinking of St. Festivus Ale,” he warns, “encourages the Airing of Grievances. Heavy drinking encourages Feats of Strength.” - location 504
a group in Missouri asks everyone at their party to write down a grievance on a piece of paper and then stuff it inside the Festivus pole. At the end of the night, the pole, made of cardboard painted silver, is broken open like a piÑata, papers spill out like candy, and the grievances are read aloud. - location 576
At Krista Soroka’s bash in Tampa, a fake-leather ledger book waits on a side table. Guests approach and enter grievances in it all night long: gripes about the injustice of Ronnie getting a girlfriend, the engorged size of the New York Yankees payroll, the pathetic state of Florida’s interstate road system and “the worst power grid ever.” The book is kept year-round on Soroka’s coffee table for visitors to mull over. - location 617
“It was another kind of way with dealing with something else that was going on at the time: the rebelliousness of the son against the father and the father trying to prove he was still stronger than the son,” Stiller continues. “It was like King Lear in Queens.” - location 711
In Tucson, Arizona, Trevor and Janet Hare threw their first annual Festivus party in December 1997 just a few days after the first-ever airing of the Seinfeld Festivus episode. “I wound up wrestling all my nephews,” Trevor, a conservation biologist, says. “Until 1999, when I threw my back out doing it.” Things at the Hare Festivus are less lumbar-intensive now. “We have impromptu arm wrestling and leg wrestling.” - location 714
Most popular is the thumb-wrestling tournament, held in a leopard-spotted, red-pillared, pizza-box-sized ring. Contestants slip thumbs into tiny wrestling masks and work their hands up into the ring from underneath. Once inside the ropes, they battle until one thumb is pinned. The winner is awarded the victor’s outfit, a red-and-black felt cape with a bow tie and rhinestones that fits snugly over the opposable digit that sets man apart from the beasts. Another body-part-testing FOS at Julianne’s party is the head-dunking-in-ice challenge. Whoever can keep his or her face held underwater in ice water the longest wins a pair of handcuffs. - location 726
INTERLUDE: (Here announcer extolls the specific virtues of the newly crowned Miss Festivus. For example:) She once kissed the drummer for the Lemonheads! She came very close to doing well on her MCAT! For some reason she calls pants “trousers”! For a female, she’s reasonably proficient at barbecue! - location 981
November 24, 2018
Such a fun read, very enjoyable for seinfeld fans
July 1, 2013
Festivus, yes! This book? Eh...so-so. The concept of Festivus is hilarious, and I find it endearing that some people actually celebrate it; however, this book is, unfortunately, better in concept than in execution. It is more engaging in the beginning. As you continue reading - if you continue reading - you will likely find yourself less and less inclined to continue to the next page. I rented the digital book for free via a local library. It is a quick read, even more so if you opt to simply stop once the downhill spiral is fully in place. - Festivus, yes! This book? Eh, not so much...read the first part and stop when it starts to hurt. I shall now go forth and procure an aluminum pole to have on call should the need for Festivus suddenly strike.
April 30, 2012
Based on an episode of “Seinfeld” called “The Strike”, Festivus is a holiday for those tired of the commercialization of Christmas and the annual rush towards the holidays that starts as early as the end of Halloween. Gather around the bare aluminum pole, give no gifts (nor receive any), warble warped variations on carols, eat those shrimps right off the flat-head nails and wrestle your dad to the floor in celebration of this wicked antidote to a worn-out holiday. Bound to appeal to the Scrooges of the world who think that “Bah, humbug!” just isn’t enough to convey the spirit of cynicism and contempt this time of year brings with it.
December 23, 2012
It’s a Festivus miracle! Someone actually wrote a book about a Seinfeld joke. Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us takes the joke too far and tries to assign meaning to it that’s just not there. Allen Salken has assembled a collection of stories from Seinfeld eccentrics that have attempted to erect a Festivus holiday. And as a whole these antidotes are rather amusing, however the obscurity of some of them shows a certain desperation to find material. To an extent the book is the joke itself; as it’s a book about nothing. But it tries too hard, including minutiae such as desert recipes and fictitious songs. Still, Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us is an entertaining read.
December 18, 2012
Ah Festivus - the holiday for the rest of us! It is one of my two favorite holidays, Groundhog Day and Festivus. No cards to send. No parades to watch. No special food to cook. No gifts to buy. No special colored M&Ms to tempt. They are silly and they are simple holidays.
One of the ritual of Festivus is the Airing of Grievances. So for this Festivus of 2012 here is my grievance - THIS BOOK IS TERRIBLE!
Put up your Festivus pole and celebrate the season with family and friends - but skip this book.
One of the ritual of Festivus is the Airing of Grievances. So for this Festivus of 2012 here is my grievance - THIS BOOK IS TERRIBLE!
Put up your Festivus pole and celebrate the season with family and friends - but skip this book.
February 14, 2013
Cute little book, celebrating Festivus and those who celebrate it. I was only familiar with Festivus through "Seinfeld," and had no idea that it actually existed. In fact, seeing Jerry Stiller's (Frank Costanza's) face on the cover, I thought the book would be specifically about the "Seinfeld" version, written from Frank's point of view (guess I missed the "foreward by Jerry Stiller" statement on the cover!). It's interesting and sweet to read of, and see the pictures of, the different people who honor this tradition and how they do so.
November 2, 2007
The best part is the forward by Jerry Stiller. Otherwise, there are a few interesting rituals that are documented - inspired me to maybe host my own Festivus party. I liked that the real thrust of this book was that people enjoy a holiday where they don't have to buy, be phony, or do things they don't want to do for the sake of tradition.
February 21, 2013
I have a book idea concerning Festivus that has been percolating in my head, so I had to go to the source to a) see if my idea has been covered and b) seek inpiration. Good news, my idea's original and I now have more ingredients in the stew. If nothing else, I've accidentally become the foremost Festivus expert of anyone I know.
August 17, 2015
Although I am a huge fan of Festivus and Seinfeld this book did not (for me) capture the spirit of the holiday. It was clearly an attempt to capitalize on the holiday. Why is there a photo of a frat house bathroom? Not Festivus related, just a kooky photo I guess. The book is tiny, the result is even smaller.
January 7, 2008
this book's sheer brilliance in humor at some parts made up for the fact that it dragged in others (i.e., the feats of strength don't entertain me). it was well-researched. it mirrors my thoughts on the holiday season.
October 6, 2008
Funny, but not in a Dave Barry kind of way, more like historically funny. Jerry Stiller does the foreward and it's great to hear his distinct voice on the audiobook. This book was informative about the history of Festivus. Yeah...there's a history. Can you believe it?
August 29, 2013
What makes this "holiday" fun and funny is the idea of Festivus; and it quickly loses is charm in large part because of the people who fanatically celebrate it. Those individuals, cataloged in the book, make this rather quick read a dull and excruciating one.
June 5, 2016
A funny look at the history of Festivus, the popularity it achieved during Seinfeld and the current celebrations. Complete with drink and recipe ideas, and fun party hosting plans. Festivus for the rest of us!
January 17, 2008
Pretty funny... but better as a tv show -not a book.
December 16, 2008
It's alright. For a book that's supposed to be funny, it's really not all that funny.
March 14, 2010
Finally a holiday I can enjoy...
June 11, 2012
This book definitely had some funny parts, but it was really not that great of a book.
December 28, 2011
IM IN THIS ONE!!! :)
November 23, 2012
Funny, entertaining book on the most foolish holiday.
December 16, 2012
Poorly written, tons of typos and misspellings, and not at all worth reading.
June 20, 2013
And you thought Festivus was only a Seinfeld episode??? :-)
January 25, 2014
Cute, but after awhile, I just got tired of it.
November 30, 2014
It seemed the time of year.....
December 26, 2012
This book was mostly dumb with a few funny parts.
December 21, 2022
…Yeesh.
It started out promisingly, with a academic-ish argument that Festivus is more representative of an inherent human need to celebrate during the darkest time of the year. That first chapter was good enough.
The remainder of the book devolved into a collection of what I assume to be every documented Festivus celebration the author could find at the time. Is he obsessed with 90s television, or did his publisher have a word count he needed to reach?
Just watch the Seinfeld episode and read the first chapter of this book if you want to feel good about it. I can’t believe I read the whole thing. That’s what happens when it’s December 20 and you’re 3 books behind on your reading challenge, I guess.
Two stars rather than one, simply because I enjoyed the first chapter and the rest of them helped me fall soundly asleep for a few nights.
It started out promisingly, with a academic-ish argument that Festivus is more representative of an inherent human need to celebrate during the darkest time of the year. That first chapter was good enough.
The remainder of the book devolved into a collection of what I assume to be every documented Festivus celebration the author could find at the time. Is he obsessed with 90s television, or did his publisher have a word count he needed to reach?
Just watch the Seinfeld episode and read the first chapter of this book if you want to feel good about it. I can’t believe I read the whole thing. That’s what happens when it’s December 20 and you’re 3 books behind on your reading challenge, I guess.
Two stars rather than one, simply because I enjoyed the first chapter and the rest of them helped me fall soundly asleep for a few nights.
December 6, 2016
There are some books that I am so curious about and can't believe actually exist in the online library that I feel like I have to check them out. This is one of those. I will say that it took itself very seriously with a lot more substance than I anticipated? There are actually some great ideas for if you're throwing a Festivus party. Other than that, you really don't need to read it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews