Mike Edmisten Follower of Jesus. Husband of Nicki. Father of Ryan & Brock. Communicator of the Word.

Festivus

I went to the hospital today to visit Joy, one of the ladies from our church. Joy was out of her room for tests when I arrived, so I went to the hospital cafeteria to eat lunch and to kill some time until she returned. As I was eating the world's most bland burger and some fries that were probably hot yesterday, I flipped through a Cincinnati Enquirer that someone had generously left at my table. And as I was reading some of the paper's holiday articles, I stumbled onto one that really grabbed my attention. It was about Festivus.

Seinfeld fans will remember Festivus as the holiday that Frank Costanza created because he didn't like celebrating a commercialized Christmas. He called it, "A Festivus for the rest of us." There was no tree or tinsel to decorate for this new holiday. Simply an aluminum pole. Crazy, right? Apparently not to some people.

The Wagner Company, a Milwaukee-based maker of hand-railing components, is producing Festivus poles. For $38, you can deck your halls with your very own silver aluminum pole.

There are a couple of reasons why my house will never be adorned with a Festivus pole. For one thing, I'm quite content to stick with Christmas. (Ok, I'm not thrilled with all the commercial aspects of the holiday either, but my family still manages to find our way around all of that.) Secondly, there's no way I'm shelling out almost $40 for a pole. That would be a real Festivus miracle.