WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – At about 2 p.m. Friday afternoon, Mike Miller was busy putting the finishing touches on his Festivus pole in preparation for the town’s inaugural celebration.

 

It was damp, gray and gloomy at the bottom of Spring Street.

 

Perfect weather for the “Seinfeld”-inspired anti-holiday, no?

 

“Yes,” Miller said. “But blowing wind and driving rain would not have been conducive with all this paper. Like I told people, though, it would just be one more thing to have a grievance about.”

 

By about the midway point of the planned two-hour festivities, the rain and wind had arrived.

 

By the time things wrapped up at 4 p.m., the rain had changed over to snow.

 

Unfortunately for Miller, the crowd never really materialized.

 

A handful of intrepid attendees did turn out to add their thoughts to the pole, a metal support for the patio roof outside Tunnel City Coffee that Miller had wrapped in white paper for the holiday.

 

And Miller did his best to extend Festivus wishes to the occasionally puzzled coffee shop patrons who passed through his event.

 

All in all, despite the weather, the local celebration of the holiday “for the rest of us” did accomplish its aim of redirecting Festivus’ energy away from grievance, per se, to more constructive thought.

 

Miller had promoted the event on flyers and in social media as encouraging less of the griping associated with the fictional Father Festivus, Frank Costanza, and more “promoting and sharing visions of what we’d like to see in the Northern Berkshires in 2023.”

 

The results of Miller’s informal “pole poll” ranged from the universal, like “more healthcare” and “less disinformation about …” to the hyper-local, like “more outside seating” in Williamstown and a return of the swim requirement at Williams College.

 

At least one attendee appeared to be more of a Festivus traditionalist and, perhaps inspired by the day’s weather, simply added a grievance: “winter rain.”