Holiday Cheer Family Challenge

Here’s a family-friendly, cheerful, easy and fun challenge for this holiday season — you can determine your own family rules but here’s the idea:

Choose a day — it could be December 23rd, December 27th or January 1st for New Year’s, any day works. Or if a whole day is too much, choose some events — shopping, a party, while out for a walk, etc.

Each family member who wishes everyone they see a “Merry Christmas,” “Happy Holidays,” “Happy New Year” — whatever seasonal wish that is appropriate for you — before they do, scores a point (if your family chooses to make it a competition).

Not the first out of your family, the first between you and the other person. You score a point if your greeting precedes the other person’s. So you would all need to share your cheer before they do. Obviously, the first to wish good cheer will have the advantage because it’s often a reflex to wish the same back.

Determining who snuck their greeting in loudly and clearly enough to be heard before a reciprocal greeting can make for …family dialog. Depending on your family or group, you may need to designate a judge for that “dialog.”

There’s some strategy here, too — eye contact and a nice greeting will likely cause the recipient to respond quicker, thus shutting out other members of your family. Yelling a greeting from too far away may not be…polite. We’re looking for a cheerful greeting, not a creepy one. Deduct a point for making the recipient feel uneasy.

It doesn’t matter if the recipient of the well-wish does not celebrate your holiday — it’s a kind greeting if done in a respectful, cheerful manner. And hopefully, they will respond with a smile or a greeting of their own. It will be interesting to talk about all the reactions — there’s certain to be one or two that stand out if it’s done long enough.

This is a fun game for the average well-wishing family, and one to bring out the teenager or less-extroverted members of your family because it’s a group activity — we’re all doing it! And some kids are motivated by competitions. Don’t worry if your teen is not shouting out with glee — it’s their M.O. But they will remember — ““We used to play some game where we wished everyone a ‘Merry Christmas’ before they did…” (Funny how you do something once and they recall that we did it “all the time.”)

Growing up, I had a friend whose parents were engaged in a Christmas card competition. I only became aware of this when my friend asked if I had gotten his father’s Christmas card, and was I going to send one…or two… back. What? “Well, my dad was disappointed in the number of Christmas cards we received last year and told my mom he could do better.” So he was in charge that year and sending them out on a daily basis whenever he thought of someone new to add to the list. And they usually reciprocated resulting in a windfall of Christmas cards, and a sure path to victory. Stamps and cards did cost, even back then, but this is how he chose to spread Christmas cheer and entertain his family at the same time. We were teens, and we were entertained.

Let the Holiday Cheer Family Challenge get your family in the spirit and spread good cheer at the same time. It’s like the “Ha-Ha” game — the first person says “Ha,” then the second says, “Ha-Ha,” the third, “Ha-Ha-Ha,” etc. Try it. It doesn’t take long to get someone to laugh. And laughter is, well, cheerful.

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