My Top Five Holidays

Bryan Albin


In honor of the recent holiday break we had it got me to thinking about what my favorite holidays are. To each individual, holidays have different meanings, so in order to let you all get a better understanding of who I am, I'm going to present my Top Five Holiday's, and no, I will not be so egomaniacal as to include my birthday as one of my favorites.

5.The Third Thursday of March – Ok, so I admit it. Right out of the gate I am cheating a little bit. The third Thursday of March is not actually a holiday (unless it happens to be St. Patrick's Day). However, for basketball fans it might as well be. The third Thursday of March represents the start of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, a day in which office productivity significantly declines and schools across the country have an increased number of cases of the flu. Whether your favorite team is playing, your alma mater is playing, or you're simply emotionally (and perhaps financially) invested in your bracket, the beginning of the tournament is a day of nonstop basketball where student athletes become heros, David and Goliath are reunited and we meet mascots worthy of being on Sesame Street. It's a day I mark on my calender each year because there isn't a better day of basketball all year.

4.Mother's/Father's Day – When I went through my list, I even caught myself off guard with this one. The Hallmark holidays found a way on to my list? Each year, I hardly look forward to these days as special days as they approach, but in retrospect, so many great memories have come from these two days. My mother and my father are my best friends, plain and simple. I should appreciate show my appreciation for them every single day, but sometimes as a human being I forget to. Having a day where I get to go out of my way to make up for all the days I missed is pretty nice.

3.Christmas – Hopefully I'm not going to make too many enemies here by putting Christmas as number three on my list, but really St. Nick should be proud I hold such high regard for his holiday considering I am Jewish. Let's just go over several of the great things about Christmas. Marquee NBA matchups on national television, family, cookies, “A Christmas Story” marathons on TBS, egg nog, snow and more family are all reasons why Christmas is a great day. Christmas has a couple problems, though. First off, now that Christmas music finds its way on to radio stations by Halloween, by the time I hear it on Christmas its been played out worse than Flo Rida's “Right Round” in the winter of 2009. Secondly, when is someone going to make a new Christmas movie? Since 2003's “Elf”, we there hasn't been a contemporary Christmas movie worth watching (I'm probably the only person who actually liked 2007's “This Christmas”). Fix this hollywood.

2.Thanksgiving – Yes, the holiday we just had is on the list. Thanksgiving is all about the three F's: family, food and football. Seeing relatives you don't normally get to see is always a good time and its even better if the Cowboys are losing. However, there is one thing I would change about Thanksgiving. It's time to axe the turkey and bring in the chicken. Let's be honest, if it was Tuesday October 12th, and you were at the supermarket, faced with the decision to buy a turkey or a chicken, what are you going to buy? Chicken, all day every day. I don't know about you, but I've never heard of a turkey quesadilla. When was the last time you went to a Kentucky Fried Turkey? Never. No one would watch “Breaking Bad” if Walter White had cooked meth for the owner of Los Pavos Hermanos. Put chicken on my Thanksgiving table and maybe it'd be number one on my list.

1.4th of July – Realistically, adding chicken to the Thanksgiving menu still wouldn't be enough to top the 4th of July. I shouldn't have to say anything other than AMERICA, but I will. Let's go through some of the great things to happen on the 4th of July. July 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed, July 4th, 1938 Bill Withers was born, July 4th 1971 Koko, the sign language gorilla, was born, July 4th, 2012, Joey Chestnut ate 68 touchdowns and of course July 4th, 1996 Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum and a recovering alcoholic saved the world from destruction at the hands of aliens. Wait, you mean the last one isn't real? And the one about the hotdogs is? All jokes aside, celebrating the birth of this wonderful country is a day that can't be beat. For most of my life the 4th of July was routinized. I would go from barbeque to barbeque, play in the traditional 4th of July softball game with my friends, cool down at the beach and then wait until the fireworks started. Last summer I had my first ever 4th of July here in DC and despite the 102 degree heat, it was pretty special sitting at the Lincoln memorial and watching the fireworks. I am so fortunate to have been born in this wonderful country and I love celebrating this day with friends family and strangers alike. It always strikes me as amazing that we can be such a polarized nation politically considering on the 4th of July everyone recognizes each others love for this wonderful country.