Festivus was originally created by the family of Seinfield screenwriter, Dan O’Keefe, in 1966. It was designed as a ‘non-holiday’ by the family and would randomly take place anytime from December to May. The very first one took place in February of 1966, when Dan O’Keefe used it to celebrate the first date of his future wife. However, it wouldn’t entire pop culture consciousness until December of 1997 when his son – Daniel O’Keefe – wrote it into the Seinfeld episode. Since it was celebrated on December 23rd during that episode, it is commonly celebrated on that day by people around the world.
During the Seinfeld episode, several elements were in place during the character’s Festivus celebration, and these elements are the ones that are usually observed by people observing the holiday. These include:
The Holiday Pole-As sort of an antithesis to the Christmas tree, the pole is an unadorned aluminum pole that is usually used as a centerpiece of the dinner celebration. These device wasn’t a part of the original O’Keefe family tradition, but was an invention Seinfeld writer, Jeff Schaffer.
The Dinner-This holiday dinner was another element displayed during the episode. On the show, the traditional dinner was meatloaf and spaghetti, but Dan O’Keefe said the original holiday dinner featured a turkey or a ham.