A Festivus Tradition: The Airing of Grievances

Seinfeld fans, me being one of them, recall the episode in which George Costanza’s father, Frank, invented his own holiday after being sick and tired of the commercialism associated with Christmas and Hanukkah. The holiday, known as Festivus, is celebrated on the 23rd of December and involves such activities as “The Airing of Grievances” and “The Feats of Strength” which are done at the Festivus dinner. Keeping with the minimalistic approach, the decorations associated with this time of year are replaced with a simple aluminum pole. Yes, an aluminum pole.

The aluminum pole is the center of my “Airing of Grievances.”

Normally, each Christmas, I deck the halls and put up a monster of a 15 foot tree in my living room. This year, for the first time ever, I did not put up a tree but opted to purchase a Festivus pole. Searching the web, I hooked up with FestivusPoles.com and on December 15th ordered a pole. According to the company, the pole left their warehouse and never made it past the black hole of UPS. {Track the package here]

After tracking the package and realizing it’s lost, I called the company on December 22nd to have a replacement shipped, which they did - 2nd Day Air. The package was scheduled to be delivered in time for the big family dinner on Christmas Day by getting here on Christmas Eve. Needless to say, it never arrived. [Track the package here]

We had a bit of freezing rain here Christmas Eve morning which caused the package to arrive at my local UPS terminal after the trucks already hit the road. After tracking the package all day and not seeing it at my door by 7pm, I made a call to UPS to only be told “Sorry, it will be delivered on Friday.” So much for Christmas.

Now, if I were the manager of the Taylor, PA UPS terminal and I had a bunch of late air packages arrive in my terminal on Christmas Eve, I would assume that the vast majority of them are Christmas gifts. I would have dispatched some additional help, even getting in my car myself, to get these air packages delivered to make people happy. But no, the answer was “Sorry, it will be delivered on Friday.”

For me, it’s just a silly Festivus Pole. For someone else, it could have been the hard-to-get, hot toy of the season that some young child won’t be opening on Christmas morning.

So, in the tradition of Festivus: “UPS you screwed up!”