It was made famous on the Jerry Seinfeld show, but actually has roots that go back centuries. A pagan festival with no real established rituals, except that you erect a Festivus pole (a plain aluminum pole) on Dec. 23rd, and that's your tree, and you don't exchange gifts--you air grievances!
I have no living family and haven't for a long time, so Festivus feels about right for me and a close woman friend, also without family. Every year I construct a Festivus wreath--this year's has a Pepto Bismal bottle on it, along with a tranquilizer prescription bottle and an empty pack of cigarettes, and a rubber chicken and a bell hanging from a safety pin and some really tacky old Xmas greenery--you get the idea. It tickles me. You can also make up Festivus songs and sing anything you want to.
Anyone else who is fed up with Christmas, please consider celebrating Festivus with us. The grievances you air are supposed to be really dumb things like: aren't you sick of the way that light bulbs are packaged in flimsy paper, and batteries are packaged in inpenetrable plastic so thick that you stab yourself whenever you try to open them? Whoever heard of a battery breaking when you drop it? That sort of thing.
Happy Festivus!
Margi and Ladywolf