Maxandermas Day

Many of you have likely heard of Festivus (for the rest of us), the popular holiday skit from the hit show Seinfeld. It includes the Airing of Grievances and the Feats of Strength. Actor Jerry Stiller in the role of Frank Costanza proclaims “Festivus Miracles” and starts out dinner with the famous line, “I got a lot of problems with you people. Now, you’re going to hear about it!” It also includes a Festivus Pole, a bare pole requiring no decoration.

Believe it or not, I have my own made-up holiday as well, coming out of co-worker’s misinterpretation of a restaurant menu as we neared our Christmas in July gift exchange at work.

During the summer of 2006, I was working at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio, as the assistant stage manager for the figure skating show, “Everyone Loves Snoopy.” A night out at a local restaurant with two friends and co-workers ended up being more humorous than we anticipated.

I first asked for a ginger ale. The waitress said they didn’t have any but that she could make one. When it arrived to me, it was extremely pale looking and I noted that. Upon trying it, it basically tasted like water. When she returned, I said, “Is that your ginger ale, because it has no color and doesn’t taste like anything.” This was the butt of laughter for both of my friends that evening and for much of the summer whenever I would order a drink thereafter.

Still inspecting the menu for what to order, one of my friends started saying over and over again, having an issue trying to pronounce the word, “Maxendermoose, maxandermoss, max… How am I supposed to say this?” My other friend and myself were perplexed as to what he was trying to say and asked him to point to it on the menu. What he was trying to say was the website address for the restaurant we were at, Max and Erma’s — maxandermas.com. A

ll three of us chuckled rather hard at the mistake. We thought it sounded like a holiday and so we made it one. Across the street from that restaurant was a Jimmy Buffet’s and we deemed, because of that, the lighted fake palm tree as the symbol of our holiday. Pale ginger ale was the official drink. There were many other attributes added to the made-up holiday over the course of the summer, many of which I have forgotten.

I still remain in contact with one of those friends and he and I both make sure, to this day, to wish each other a Happy Maxandermas Day! Although we wish it to each other any day of the year, the agreed upon celebration day for it is July 25, attending to the Christmas in July theme and when it was born.