Will you be celebrating festivus alongside George Costanza this year? (NBC)
It’s that time of the year again … time for a Festivus for the rest of us! This Monday, Dec. 23 is a time for family, food and the annual Airing of Grievances during Festivus, the alternative Christmas holiday first celebrated onscreen by the Costanza family in the Seinfeld universe and now celebrated by Seinfeld fans and those who enjoy complaining and wrestling alike! Are you ready to celebrate Festivus? In case you need a refresher, here’s how to celebrate the Seinfeld holiday, plus where to watch the Festivus episode of Seinfeld, and the rest of the sitcom’s holiday episodes too.
Festivus is a holiday first coined in Season 9, Episode 10 of Seinfeld. Invented by George Costanza’s father, Frank. Festivus is an alternative to Christmas, where families can air their grievances towards one another, decorate with an unadorned metal pole and physically wrestle.
The TV holiday was actually inspired by real-life Seinfeld writer Dan O’Keefe’s family traditions. His father invented a version of Festivus, and Dan blended real aspects of his own family traditions with other Seinfeld writers’ suggestions to create the holiday we all love to celebrate today.
Festivus, a Festivus for the rest of us, falls on Dec. 23 every year. This year, that happens to be a Monday, which feels like the perfect day for the Airing of Grievances.
There are three key elements to Festivus. First, you need to get a metal pole as decor for the holiday, because as Frank Costanza put it, tinsel is “distracting,” and a plain pole “requires no decoration.”
Then, you’ll need to participate in the Airing of Grievances (preferably at the dinner table). This is where members of the family share how they were let down by each other that year (how fun!). You can also complain about other things in your life or the world at large.
And finally, the “feats of strength,” where you basically fight one another! This can be in the form of wrestling, like Frank Costanza preferred, or something a bit less physical. Perhaps a game of some kind! But feel free to bow out of this step if you have to go work a double shift at H&H Bagels…
Another way to celebrate Festivus? Rewatching the original Festivus Seinfeld episode, or perhaps even all of the Seinfeld Christmas episodes.
The final holiday episode of Seinfeld, Season 9, Episode 10, “The Strike,” is where the story of Festivus is told.
You can stream all nine seasons of Seinfeld on Netflix. But if you’re looking to go a step further, the complete series was just released on Blu-Ray (and 4K!) for the very first time, just in time for Festivus!
This is especially good news for fans who are bothered by the way the aspect ratio of the series translated to streaming. In the DVD format, the series should be restored to its original aspect ratio — call that a Festivus miracle!
- “The Red Dot” (Season three, episode 12)
- “The Pick” (Season four, episode 13)
- “The Race” (Season six, episode 10)
- “The Label Maker” (Season six, episode 12)
- “The Gum” (Season seven, episode 10)
- “The Andrea Doria” (Season eight, episode 10)
- “The Millennium” (Season eight, episode 20)
- “The Strike” (Season nine, episode 10)
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