It's time for another epic encounter with a Brandon Kravitz, not Rushmore. We have.
This will be controversial.
Well, there are certain holiday favorites that are left off for very particular reasons, and we will get into all of it right here. Number one is the reason for the season, always the Fourth of July fireworks. What makes you feel more proud to be a red blooded American than fire in the sky. Even if it's ninety three degrees that feels like temp is one oh two and we're getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, there's still something that feels so right when we gather to watch this display
in the sky. Whether it's red hot and boom, or you're watching down by Disney or your over zealous neighbor that overspent at the tent down the street, the Fourth of July fireworks an absolute A plus celebration. Number two, the second face on the Mountain is trick or treating fun for the whole family.
You get free candy on top of it.
Unfortunately, you do have to cut this one off at about the age of thirteen if you don't have kids, because then it gets weird. But still, even in today's world where you really can't trust anybody anymore, and people aren't as friendly as they used to be. This one is still holding on for dear life as a nationwide standard. Number three is the Thanksgiving Feast. This is as good as it gets. It's so good it deserves its own list.
You've got the food, you've got the football, you've got the family, you've got the classic.
Macy's Day parade that precedes it.
It hits all the notes and you can gorge yourself with no judgment whatsoever. And the NFL has been kind enough to tack on an extra football game just for good measure. And if you aren't hosting to get together, you also are absolved of dish duty, which is great. Now. Number four is where I think things can get a little bit controversial. I think a lot of people expect at this point for there to be a Christmas celebration in this Mount Rushmore. I'm going with Saint Patrick's Day
at an Irish bar instead. If you are fortunate enough to make this happen on Saint Patrick's Day, and for me, it's been years since I've been able to do this, but there is nothing like it. The cheesy green beer, the guinnesses, the crappy Irish music, everyone's wearing green. I've never been to an Irish bar on Saint Patrick's Day where everyone isn't having a blast, So it's a little bit of a sleeper here at number four on the list.
But I couldn't do a mount Rushmore and not have a drinking holiday on there fourth of July, Trick or treating, Thanksgiving Feast, Saint Patrick's Day at an Irish bar.
Your thoughts, so to be clear, these are activities that occurred during the holiday, not the holiday itself.
Correct.
I think these are the celebrations within the holiday.
That I think it is in a very important detail at a point now here.
Because Christmas is an even for someone that grew up in a Jewish household, Christmas is a mount Rushmore holiday. The reason I left I think what most people would consider in terms of the the mainstream celebration is wake up in the morning, you go to the tree, you open up the gifts. This is a new endeavor for me, by the way. I'm just experiencing this and I'm enthralled by it. But that I left it off because it's so isolated. You've got a couple of people. You're not
inviting the whole family over for this. All of these other celebrations that are on the Mount Rushmore, you bring a group together. You're either out in public or Thanksgiving feast. If you've got a big family, there could be twenty people at your house. With Christmas Morning, it's not as much it's a tradition, not a celebration. That's where that one didn't lie.
I think I think that it can be fair, and this is where the religious hall it's kind of you know, how how do you factor it in Easter?
Egg hunts on Easter?
It's a big one that if you do celebrate Easter, then obviously that's huge and the same kind of thing as Christmas Morning, whereas it's probably some of your best childhood memories.
And then once you.
Get older, you get to watch your child go through those same memories and you start to enjoy it for different reasons. You when you're young, you light you love receiving the gifts, and as you get older, you naturally shift towards loving to give the gift. So that's why Christmas Morning it holds up through time. But where I would kind of push back a little bit is I think the percentage of people that actually do Saint Patti's Day the proper way, or even do Saint Patti's Day
is limited. You have cities that go crazy for it. It's Chicago, I believe that dies their river green for it for the celebration. You know, that's that's awesome, And I'm with you. If you can be in one of those scenarios every year, sign me up. However, I just don't think that as many people do it because similar to the fourth of July, which fourth of July is a holiday and like people have off, you're not working on the fourth of July more often than not unless
you work in hospitality or something. But if you are in the business world and follow the traditional work schedule, you are not working on the fourth of July. The same with Thanksgiving, and I think that's why those two kind of separate themselves. But Saint Patti's Day, you gotta work a lot of times Saint Patty's Day unless it falls on a weekend.
But that's what makes it so good when you do get to when you do get to experience it without the you know, you're almost playing hooky in some ways. You know, it is it is definitely the least attainable of all four. Yeah, but when you're able to do it, it hits all the notes.
That's where bringing up like, I mean, well, we can get really hot and.
I love Fourth of July and I don't want that's get twisted. And this isn't a list of holidays. It's a list of holiday activities.
It's the fireworks on the fourth, the trigger treating on Halloween, the Thanksgiving feast. That's where the Fourth of July it falls on a Wednesday. You get lucky this year or the Friday. A lot of people are getting three four day weekends this year, and we will for the next couple because but the last couple of years, guess what, I started this show on July fifth of twenty twenty three.
I didn't have as good of a Fourth of July.
That was on a Tuesday that year, knowing that I had to come to work the next day.
It's our new job that day.
So that's part of the downside of the Fourth of July is you can you can plan and do whatever it is you want to do, but most years you are going to have work the next day. And that's where the sleeper is like the Labor Day, the Memorial Day, the days where it is guaranteed that you have a three day weekend, those can be sneaky on on certain list of like best holidays and the activities you're able
to do. Obviously, the beach are getting in some body of water big for some of those three day weekend holidays.
One of the things I realized in researching this is because I did do that, you know, I pulled up all the holidays online. I did my due diligence, and there's just not enough celebrations for the holidays that we have that we have days off, and most of the celebrations are just a Rooms to Go has thirty percent off couches. You know, we need to do better than this as a collective. And I don't think I'm going to get any pushback on Valentine's Day dinner or a New Year's Eve party.
New Year's Eve party is good, but they're usually pretty overrated.
I do like the ball dropping though, I like staying up for that feeling the newness of the new year, so that one almost got on there. But I thought Saint Patrick's Day really needed a Saint Patrick's They need a tip of the cap. That's a good time.
How here's one thing of what I'd say for ah Man.
But you can combine the two now with the ball What really killed the ball dropping.
Is George is Ohio State football.
That's what killed the ball dropping because every sports fan in the country was left in a decision years ago. But do they still do those games on New Year's Eve with a new playoff format? I think that they still do it, just didn't go as late this year. I might be mistaken on that though.
Years ago I think they move it around.
We were left with a decision do you want to see the ball drop or do you want to see the end of a college football playoff game? Many chose the ladder and missed the ball drop.
So if it's this iconic event in the modern world for sports fans, because we're people too, you know.
You got it, you gotta factor that in.
Whereas Thanksgiving feast, Listen if grandma wants to turn the game off, if you want to do a traditional round the two able dinner for twenty minutes, no one's fighting grandma to watch the third quarter of the Cowboys game, all right, would you listen?
I would fist fight my grandma for that. Yeah, there's two. There's two things. There's two things you gotta do. Leave the game on, keep that air running, don't sweat