Summary

The website content describes a family's 25-day Christmas celebration, focusing on watching "The Office" Christmas episodes and crafting holiday cards, while also exploring the history of Yankee Swap.

Abstract

The article details a family's tradition of celebrating Christmas over 25 days, engaging in both large events and smaller, meaningful activities. On Day 3, they enjoy watching Christmas episodes of "The Office," particularly the Season 2 episode featuring a Yankee Swap, which leads to a discussion about the game's historical roots linked to the American Civil War. Day 4 is dedicated to the family's tradition of creating and sending out personalized Christmas cards, a practice they have cherished for 19 years, accumulating a significant collection of memories. The article emphasizes the joy and importance of these traditions in creating lasting memories and encourages others to consider starting their own holiday card tradition.

Opinions

The author expresses a strong affection for the comedy series "The Office," highlighting it as one of their favorite shows to watch during the Christmas season.
There is a sense of surprise and interest in the historical origins of Yankee Swap, with the author finding it remarkable that the game is connected to an aspect of American history.
The author values the tradition of sending holiday cards, considering it a worthwhile and fun activity that contributes to a cherished collection of family memories.
The article conveys enthusiasm for sharing personal traditions and encourages readers to adopt similar practices to enrich their holiday experiences.

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS: DAYS 3–4

Double Feature: The Office Laughs and Crafting Christmas Memories with Cards!

Discovering the roots of Yankee Swap while indulging in The Office’s festive humor

So how do you celebrate Christmas for 25 days straight?

It’s all about the small stuff and making memories. Some days we do big events like seeing the Trans Siberian Orchestra or Christmastown at Busch Gardens. Then other days we do smaller things like decorate the tree, or re-watch some of our favorite holiday movies and tv shows.

Day 3: One of our favorite comedy shows is the show “The Office”. So every Christmas season, my husband sets up a playlist of our favorite Christmas episodes. When we have a jam-packed day, it’s really nice to have these episodes to watch together as we wind down from the day.

This night we watched the Season 2 episode 10 “Christmas Party”. In this episode, Michael plays Yankee Swap with the Secret Santa gifts because he wants everyone to fight for the iPod that he put in the gift pile.

When I was growing up, we didn’t call it Yankee Swap we called it White Elephant. I’ve always wondered how this tradition was started. Let’s find out. According to https://www.gigglesnhugs.com/:

The name “Yankee Swap” has been linked to the American Civil War. According to one disputed origin theory, the term originated from an informal prisoner exchange system between Union and Confederate generals.

In 1862, Union General John Dix and Confederate General Daniel H. Hill agreed on a system where soldiers were assigned values based on their ranks, allowing for swapping prisoners of equal rank.

Wow, I never would have thought the origin of this game came from this part of our American history!!

Day 4: Today was another small tradition day. My husband worked all day and created our Christmas card to send out this year.

We LOVE this tradition. When I got married, it was one tradition I knew I wanted us to start and I’m so glad that I did. I create scrapbooks of each year's cards sent to us with a special page dedicated to the card we sent out.

We have been married 19 years now, so as you can imagine, that’s a frick ton of Christmas cards. I LOVE pulling out my scrapbooks and seeing all the memories from each year unfold on the pages.

If you don’t send holiday cards out, you should. It’s worth the effort, and it’s a really FUN tradition. Here are some of our previous year’s cards: