Christmas Every Day
David Archuleta’s “Christmas Every Day” has quietly become the unofficial anthem of our 25 Dates of Christmas. It started back in 2020 during “Nine Ladies Dancing,” when we played the song on repeat for nearly an hour while attempting (and butchering) the choreography. Ever since, the track has symbolized the idea that Christmas spirit isn’t confined to a date on the calendar — it can be summoned anytime. So for this year’s return to the theme, we built an entire day around finding Christmas in the ordinary.
Morning kicked off with the twins tearing into their Advent gift as Archuleta’s music video blasted through the house. With everyone fully awake, we read William Dean Howells’ 1892 short story “Christmas Every Day,” a tale that once cautioned Gilded Age readers about too much of a good thing. It made for a funny contrast with our own enthusiasm for stretching Christmas across all 25 days.
Breakfast took us to Denny’s for a slice of Americana folklore. In 1988, the chain attempted to close on Christmas Day for the first time — only to discover that nearly 700 locations had no locks because they had literally never closed. To honor that bit of holiday history, we embraced the diner’s festive menu: Rudolph pancakes and cinnamon-roll pancakes.
Throughout the day, the kids dove into making Christmas crafts from whatever they could find around the house with their pinnacle being reached with their toilet-paper-tube Santas. Then came an afternoon toast to Andy Park, the British electrician known as “Mr. Christmas,” who famously celebrated Christmas every single day (complete with a Christmas dinner feast) for years. In his honor, we watched the King’s Christmas Speech with a glass of port before the kids came home from school.
Evening brought the day’s main event: our Holiday Gas Station Top Chef Challenge. With only gas-station ingredients allowed, we transformed SPAM, freezer mac and cheese, refrigerated sandwiches, and other decidedly un-festive items into a Christmas Eve dinner. Brown-sugar-glazed “ham,” Ritz-crusted mac and cheese, improvised stuffing, a mint-chocolate-pie dessert, and even a gas-station floral centerpiece somehow came together into a meal that was equal parts ridiculous and impressive.
We closed the night with a family viewing of Pete’s Christmas, perfectly on-theme with its time-loop storyline, and later the adults ended the day with the 1936 Max Fleischer cartoon Christmas Comes But Once a Year — the perfect bow on a day all about celebrating whenever and however you want.
In the end, our “Christmas Every Day’’ celebration blended nostalgia, quirky history, DIY creativity, and a hilariously ambitious gas-station feast. It was a reminder that Christmas doesn’t have to be grand to be meaningful — sometimes it just takes a song, a story, and the joy of finding holiday magic hidden in the everyday.
ACTIVITIES
Archuleta “Christmas Every Day” Music Video And Playlist
Advent Gift Kickoff
Reading William Dean Howells’ 1892 Story “Christmas Every Day”
Mr. Christmas (Andy Park) Mini-History
Denny’s Holiday Breakfast Outing
Everyday-Object Christmas Crafts
King’s Christmas Speech (With Port)
Holiday Gas Station “Top Chef” Dinner Challenge
“Pete’s Christmas” Movie
“Christmas Comes But Once A Year” (1936 Cartoon)
Menu
Denny’s Rudolph Pancakes
Denny’s Cinnamon Roll Pancakes
Grand Slam Burrito
Spam With Brown Sugar Glaze
Freezer Mac & Cheese With Ritz Cracker Crust
Stuffing With Biscuits, Sausage, And Buns
Applesauce With Diced Peaches
Chocolate Mint Pie
Cranberry Juice Cocktail
