Appreciate a Dragon Day & Other Zany January Holidays

Are you going to celebrate First Foot Day on New Year’s Day? What kind of dragon will you give life to on Appreciate a Dragon Day? Will you write a story while taking a bubble bath on Bubble Bath Day? What kind of hat will you wear on National Hat Day? How many times will you shock yourself on National Static Electricity Day? Are you peculiar enough to celebrate Peculiar People Day?

January first is New Year’s Day. Everyone knows that. But there are other reasons to celebrate the first day of the new year too.

First Foot Day may still be observed in some parts of Britain, Scotland, and the United States, maybe even elsewhere. It is kind of an interesting custom in which the first feet to cross the threshold of a home in the wee hours of New Year’s Day belongs to the one who is supposed to bring all the luck, whether it be good or bad, for the next year. There is one catch though, the first-footer has to be a dark-haired and handsome male! And if he wants to bring his family good luck, his arms must be loaded with food.

Polar Bear Plunge or Swim Day wouldn’t normally be a day to plunge into water unless maybe you dove into an indoor pool or climbed in a hot-tub. But some brave souls plunge into icy waters outdoors to raise money for charity. There are several locations in the United States and Canada where gutsy individuals choose to plunge into the freezing waters. This event is also held at other times during the year.

On Answer Your Cat’s Questions Day, have all of your cats—I have eight of them— gather around you. Have them take turns asking you questions about whatever they are curious about. Why won’t you let them jump on the table? Why can’t they claw the furniture? Why do you take them to the vet? Why do you have dogs too?

Writing Prompt: Write a story about a cat that one day finds himself (or herself) able to speak. When he finds out that he can talk, he is full of questions. What questions does he ask? His owner thinks he will never hush. Word spreads about this cat that can talk, then he disappears. Did the cat wander off on his own? Or did someone kidnap him? Does the owner succeed in finding his beloved pet?

Appreciate a Dragon Day is every January 16. Why do we have a holiday telling us to appreciate these fire-breathing creatures? The purpose of this day is to teach children and young people to appreciate reading. There are some great stories out there that have dragons in them. Lord of the Rings has Smaug, Eragon has Saphira. For younger children, there is Puff the Magic Dragon by Lenny Lipton or The Knight and the Dragon by Tomie dePaola.

Dragons are fascinating creatures. The dragons that we know for sure exist, like the Komodo dragon, are a bit different from the fictional dragons that breathe fire. Sometimes these mythical dragons have been fierce and protective, at other times they have been harmful and dangerous.

Writing Prompt: Decide today what kind of dragon you want to create. Do you want a friendly, playful dragon that would be appropriate for young children to read about? Or do you wish to create a fierce, fire-breathing protector of a vast treasure hidden deep inside of its cave? Maybe your idea of what your dragon should be like is vastly different. Whatever kind of dragon is breathing fire in your mind and longing to get out, this is the day to allow him to escape and grant him immortality.

Bubble Bath Day is the day to fill a bathtub with hot water and pour in some scrumptiously scented bubble bath. Now lean back in the tub and relax. Maybe you like to read while in the tub, so this would be the perfect time to delve further into the story that currently has your attention. Maybe you need to take a break from the story you are writing.

Writing Prompt: While you are relaxing in all of the bubbles, why not create a magical character for children who is a bubble? This magical character has the ability to go back into the soap, just as he has the ability to form anytime he is put into water. What does he do? Are children afraid of him? Or do they love him?

Dress Up Your Pet Day – I’m not sure how fond animals are of playing dress up. There are probably some pet owners who will find that trying to put any kind of clothing on their pet is a dangerous thing. If you wish to try your luck at doing so, January 14 is the day to attempt this daring feat.

Writing Prompts: What if the pet doesn’t want to be dressed up? You could write a humorous tale about an owner who tries to dress up her pet against its will. I’m sure there would be a chase through the house, through the neighborhood, maybe even through a few grocery and department stores.

Or maybe when the pet is dressed up in human clothes, he begins to act like a human. Would he even gain the ability to speak and walk on only two legs?

Eskimo Pie Patent Day – Have you ever had one of these ice cream bars? On January 24, 1922, Christian Kent Nelson obtained the patent for his food creation he originally called the I-Scream Bar. If you have never had the delight of eating an Eskimo Pie, treat yourself to one on this cold day.

Writing Prompt: A young man has come up with a wonderful new flavor for an ice cream bar. There are others who discover his secret and become mad when he won’t share his new recipe with them. They want to steal his recipe and sell it to the highest bidder. The boy wants no one to have it except for those in his family. What happens?

Another idea—The local ice cream truck has been selling ice cream bars for as long as it has run. One day the vendor runs out of them, and he is going down the road when his truck begins to melt like an ice cream bar that has been out in the heat too long. What is going on?

Houseplant Appreciation Day is a day that encourages people to appreciate their houseplants and show how much they love them. Me? I show houseplants how much I love them by not having any. Whenever I try to care for a plant, it dies.

Writing Prompt: Does your houseplant appreciate you, or would it just as soon see you dead? Create a character – a plant – that stalks its owner. This plant literally wants to see its owner dead, but why?

International Skeptics Day – A skeptic is a doubter and will question just about everything. Are you a skeptic? Do you question everything and everyone? Are you a “Doubting Thomas?”

A skeptic must have been the one to create this holiday because there seems to have been a lot of doubt about which day to celebrate it on. You have your choice of January 13, October 13, or the first Friday of the year. Or you could celebrate it on all three dates!

Writing Prompt: Your very skeptical character is about to have his skepticism put to the test. Never has anyone been able to change his mind about anything, but now irrefutable proof is put in front of him that blows his disbelief out of the water. What has he refused to believe in for all of his life? What proof is presented to him? How does he react?

National Clean Off Your Desk Day – Do you work better on a clean desk? I know I do. January 24 is the day to get your desk all neat and tidy. That isn’t hard to do, but it is hard to keep it neat and clean.

When you do clean your desk off, what treasures will you find hidden beneath all the mess?

Writing Prompt: Create a character who finds an item that is priceless hidden on his messy desk, but he doesn’t realize its value. He thinks it is junk. There is someone watching him who does realize its true value though. What will this person do to obtain this treasure?

National Hat Day – What type of hat do you wear? Is it a derby? Could it be a sombrero, a yarmulke, a beret, a derby, or a Stetson? Perhaps your hat of choice is a coolie. Whatever type of hat you wear, today, January 15, is the day to wear it and show it off. If you have several different types of hats, show them all off today.

Writing Prompt: Hats, hats, and more hats. There are all kinds of hats that exist. Have your character participate in a treasure hunt where the winner will be the first one to collect one of every type of hat in existence. This could be a humorous story with people doing all kinds of crazy things to obtain the hats. Or you could turn it into a murder/mystery when a mysterious clue is found in one of the hats. Or it could be a thriller – someone finds a hat that has some international political secret hidden inside. Or it could be a horror story – one of the hats found by one of the participants has a curse on it. What is the curse? How does it affect the one who finds it?

You could also celebrate National Hat Day by reading about some hats that used to be in fashion. Here is a link to an article from Mental Floss: 12 Old Hat Styles Due for a Comeback.

National Peanut Butter Day – How many peanuts do you think it takes to make a 12-ounce jar of this yummy treat? It takes about 550. You can find this food in just about every home. Some people like to eat it on a sandwich with or without jelly.  I had a teacher who loved peanut butter and tomato sandwiches.

Others like to eat it with bananas. I like to mix it in my plain yogurt.

Whatever way you enjoy your peanut butter, I’m sure you will find a way to eat it on this day.

Writing Prompts: You could also celebrate this day by including peanut butter in your story. You could have a character who is fanatical about peanut butter.

Something could go wrong at the factory where peanut butter is made and put into the jars. What if something was lost in the tons of peanut butter? What is something was purposely hidden in the chunky version? What is someone was murdered in the machinery? What if a dead body was found?

National Static Electricity Day is the day to celebrate this stationary electrical charge produced by friction that will cause your hair to stand on end. You can learn more about static electricity at Science Made Simple.

Writing Prompt: Why not write a story where static electricity is the reason a crime is able to be solved? Did an important piece of evidence stick to a piece of clothing when it came out of the dryer? Did the shock someone receive after walking across the carpet in such a way that a charge was built up then released when the light switch was touched cause him to remember a piece of vital information? Have fun coming up with a unique way to include static electricity in your story.

Opposite Day is a day where everything you say can be the opposite of what you mean. If you want someone to stand up, tell them to sit down. If you say it is hot, then you really mean it is cold. Sponge Bob Square Pants even joined in the fun and had an episode about this day. Children are usually the ones who celebrate this holiday, but why let them have all the fun? How long would you be able to say the opposite of everything you mean before becoming totally confused?

Writing Prompt: This would be great material for a kids’ book, but why not write a book for adults about it? A sophisticated, intelligent group of thieves use this day to their advantage, and successfully rob many houses every year on this day. How do they accomplish this?

Peculiar People Day is a day in honor of those who are unique, distinctive, special, odd, queer, strange, weird, offbeat, different, curious, unusual, bizarre, outlandish, or off the wall. I only hope that I am peculiar enough to join this crowd of people. Whether or not you are peculiar enough, you can create a character that definitely is.

Writing Prompt: You could celebrate this day by creating a peculiar character. This character, ashamed of his peculiarity, learns to appreciate just how different he is on this day. What happened?

Play God Day – Ah, a day to play God. If you had the chance to actually be God for just one day, what would you do? Would you cause everyone to live in peace? Would you get rid of all your enemies and the people that you don’t like? Maybe you would make yourself immensely wealthy. Would you have fun with the weather? Maybe on this normally cold day, you would cause a heat wave.

Did you realize that you get to play God every time you sit down to write? What your characters do, every decision they make, every hardship they experience, every success they have – all of those are in your hands. So January 9 is a day to fully take advantage of that when you write.

Writing Prompt: Why not create a character who discovers that whatever he says happens? Once he figures this out, what does he do? What kind of things does he speak into existence? Or what does he speak out of existence? And what does he do when he discovers the effect these things have on his life and the lives of those around him?

Rubber Ducky Day – January 13 is the day to play with your rubber ducky. It is not known exactly when the first rubber ducky was created, but it is believed to have been sometime during the early 1800s. The very first ones were made of hard rubber and did not squeak. They became popular many years later when Ernie from Sesame Street sang “Rubber Duckie.” Most rubber ducks are yellow, but many different varieties have been made.

Writing Prompt: You could write a sweet children’s story about a rubber ducky. Or you could write something different. How about a tale of horror for adults where a rubber ducky comes to life and terrorizes a household?

Snowplow Mailbox Hockey Day – You can probably guess what this holiday is all about. If you choose to celebrate it by driving a snowplow and playing hockey with mailboxes, you could end up getting arrested, so why not celebrate it in a way that is legal?

Writing Prompt: Write a story about someone playing snowplow hockey with mailboxes. In the world you create, make this game a legal contest so that no one is arrested in your tale.

On Squirrel Appreciation Day, if you live in an area where there the winter weather is brutal, then there probably isn’t enough of a food outside for the local squirrels. This holiday is celebrated to encourage people to help out these little woodland creatures with bushy tails. Yeah, they may have spent all fall gathering nuts and seeds to store away for the winter, but especially if the winter is long and brutal, they may not have enough. You can provide some extra food for them that they will appreciate and look upon as a treat. They would appreciate sunflower seeds, unsalted peanuts, bread, or pieces of fruits and vegetables. And I know from experience that they go wild over birdseed.

Writing Prompt: Why not write a story about a squirrel that befriends the young boy who feeds him? At first, the squirrel is afraid of this little human who places food at the base of the tree he lives in, but after he keeps putting it there day after day after day, the squirrel becomes curious. How long does it take for the squirrel to befriend the boy? How does the boy prove his friendship to the squirrel?

Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friends Day is a day to be mischievous, not to literally jump in a puddle and splash your friends. Anyway, on any day in this usually cold month most puddles are frozen!

Writing Prompts: Write a children’s story about a boy (or girl) who likes to splash people for meanness. And this is only one of the mean things he likes to do to others. One day, the townspeople decide to take their revenge. What happens?

Talk Like a Grizzled Prospector Day – Talking like a grizzled prospector is a fun way to commemorate an important nugget of California history. On January 24, 1848, James Marshall discovered the few nuggets of gold that led to the Gold Rush. Exactly how does a grizzled prospector talk? I’m not sure, so just use your imagination.

Winnie the Pooh Day is the day to commemorate A.A. Milne, the creator of my favorite bear, Winnie the Pooh.