5 Reasons Working Holidays This Year Might Be A Good Idea

Maybe the bartender will make you a special Santa shot! Or maybe it'll start to snow and you can have a snowball fight in the middle of the empty city streets! I mean that's pretty awesome, and might even be more fun than listening to your Grandma tell the same story over and over while…

By Kate Thomas

Updated 3 years ago, September 23, 2021

If you’re a semi-adult person, you will probably be forced to work on a holiday at some point in your life. Gone are the days of grade school when you get every single seasonal celebration to yourself. It’s just not going to happen once you graduate college. Chances are you’ll have to choose. Thanksgiving or Christmas? Passover or Easter? Boxing Day or Labor Day? Memorial Day Weekend — I mean who gets that off anymore? Three day weekends are actually unicorns.
However, as someone who is working Christmas week this year, I have come to the realization that sometimes working a holiday is not so terribly awful. Here are some things to remember when everyone else is eating latkes or taking ugly holiday sweater selfies:

1. You’re avoiding the madness that is holiday travel.

Think about all of those delayed flights, the jam-packed Amtrak trains and all the sweaty, creepy people on the bus already drunk on paper-bagged beer. Yes, you in your little cubicle get to avoid all of that.

2. Your boss will be more appreciative of you.

I don’t know what it is, but when you work holidays, your boss automatically likes you more. Like “Wow, how nice of Sandy to sacrifice her Christmas for the good of the firm.” How dedicated. Really, we know that if no one had stepped up and offered to work the holiday, your boss would’ve haughtily volunteered you, but you saw it coming, so you dodged that bullet. You volunteered, and now you’re fucking Joan of Arc or y’know Jon…whatever, you get it.

3. You might make a little extra money.

Hourly employees, you definitely will. And kudos to you! You get to sell movie tickets and serve pork loin to the people that are lonely or bored or just hate holidays, and you know that if you make them feel special or justified in their decision to come out and do non-holiday things in your presence, you could very well get a fat tip. Salaried employees, you might get a nice little holiday bonus, gift card, or even a hand-knit sweater. Or again, brownie points from your boss, which frankly, you need.

4. You can show up to work wearing whatever you want.

Why? Because no one is there! You could be in a Hanukkah onesie, rockin’ bedhead and hangover face, or you could wrap yourself in Christmas lights while mastering all the harmonies in the GLEE casts’ rendition of “Jingle Bells.” It’s all good. All fine. Nobody cares what you choose to wear that week as long as the international orders go out, the spreadsheets get done, and the phone is answered. Embrace this opportunity to experiment with your holiday fashion sense.

5. You’ll have a lot more fun than you think.

Contrary to what you may believe, you are not the only one working the holidays. There are all sorts of other holiday orphans not home with their families, so y’all can hang out! After work, that is. Yes, you will receive the divine privilege of sharing holiday war stories while playing cards in a dead dive bar and drinking good Irish pints. I mean who doesn’t want to do that? Maybe the bartender will make you a special Santa shot! Or maybe it’ll start to snow and you can have a snowball fight in the middle of the empty city streets! I mean that’s pretty awesome, and might even be more fun than listening to your Grandma tell the same story over and over while getting ham stuck in her teeth.

So go forth, be merry and have the best working holiday you possibly can!