On Thursday night, we of Team GrepBeat had the pleasure of hosting our annual Holiday Happy Hour in Durham. Attendees enjoyed a first round of drinks (and copious swag) courtesy of our generous sponsor, Fourscore Business Law, and we were happy to see many of you turn out in suitably festive holiday attire. (We weren’t having a competition, but Rhonda Jean of Nearby Nearby won.)
As tends to be the case at our holiday events, we kept the programming and speechifying to a minimum, instead opting to let guests enjoy some casual mingling—as well as the musical stylings of our DJ for the evening, DJ Pdogg of In The Mix Productions.
We also added a fun wrinkle this year with 12 pressing holiday season questions laid out for attendees to answer as they pleased. (What’s your favorite holiday treat? Is it okay to decorate before Thanksgiving? IS DIE HARD A CHRISTMAS MOVIE?!?) Each answer doubled as a raffle entry, and at the end of the night three winners were randomly selected to receive coveted GrepBeat Socks-‘n-Mug Combo Packs. You may have noticed them pictured above.
You can scroll on down for a look through our photo slideshow of the Happy Hour. But for those who would like to sift through some community holiday opinions, here are the prompts we offered and some of the best responses we got for each….
How long is it okay to leave decorations up?
We got a wide variety of responses here. I personally was pleased to see that we didn’t have too many take-down-the-tree-on-the-26th grinches in our midst. In fact, every response gave it at least until January.
Best Answer: “January 7th, no more, no less; the 12 days of Christmas are 12/25 – 1/6.” Can’t say I fully agree but I respect the precision. This one came from Paul Greenham, who was also a GrepBeat Socks-‘n-Mug Combo Pack winner.
What is your favorite holiday meal or treat?
Here, too, there was quite a spectrum. We heard “pumpkin pie” and we heard “Norwegian rice cake,” which is apparently a thing.
Best Answer: “Apple sauce cake.” You have to appreciate an answer that makes you think. As with Norwegian rice cake, I was surprised to learn that this is a thing.
Is “Die Hard” a Christmas movie?
As you may have noticed, this is for some reason an extremely hot topic every year. Here’s the thing: There’s an ironclad justification for both answers. For “yes,” it’s that the movie literally ends with Christmas music playing. For “no,” it’s that the movie was released in the summer.
For the enlightened, this question doesn’t actually matter, but “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy is in fact a Christmas movie(s).
Best Answer: There are no good answers to this question anymore, including mine above.
What is your favorite holiday tradition?
We had some classics (pumpkin pie, lighting Hannukah candles), some cozy choices (a White Russian on Christmas Eve), and then we had….
Best Answer: “Burning the Christmas tree.” So, yeah, the thing I said above about not having grinches in our midst does not apply to Christmas Pyro Tim Scales.
What is your favorite holiday movie?
Nothing too surprising here. We pretty much heard about the usual suspects: “Elf,” “Home Alone,” “Love Actually,” “A Christmas Story,” and so on. How none of you shouted out “The Santa Clause” is beyond me.
Best Answer: “The Holiday. Love Actually,” our own Sonali Sanjay wrote. She then drew an arrow back to “The Holiday” to specify, “that one.”
What is your favorite holiday song?
This question might have actually produced the greatest variety… which just goes to show that The Mariah Carey Song probably shouldn’t comprise its standard 90-130% of Christmas playlists in public spaces. You all shouted out “O Holy Night,” “Feliz Navidad,” two different versions of “Last Christmas,” and more.
Best Answer: “Linus & Lucy,” which I appreciated because I didn’t actually know that this the name of the happy Peanuts song. Thanks!
Who would you cast as Santa in your holiday movie?
You all failed. Very little creativity on this one.
Best Answer: “Samuel L. Jackson.” Sure. Close enough to creative.
Is it okay to decorate before Thanksgiving?
Just some extremely strong opinions on this one. We saw everything from suggestions to keep the lights up all year, to furious objections, to “who cares?”
Best Answer: “Jail.” Evidently, Mike Halpert—another mug winner—feels particularly strongly about this one.
Would you rather spend holidays at Hogwarts or in Narnia?
There was a bit of a surprising split here. Due respect to lions, witches, and wardrobes, the Potterverse is quite a bit more prominent these days. I expected lots of Hogwartian holiday dreams, but the snowy land in the back of the wardrobe held its own.
Best Answer: “Both.” Cheating, perhaps, but given some of you would like to stretch “the holidays” from Halloween to the end of January, there’s probably time for a couple stops.
What is your favorite snow activity?
Plenty of love was given here to the obvious suspects of skiing, snowboarding, sledding, and building snowmen (though no one opted for snowball fights).
Best Answer: “Eating it.” Points for stepping outside the box.
What is the best gift you’ve given or received?
Answers here included the “Imagine” LP, a nice hand-knit sweater, LEGOs, and even love itself. I’m not 1,000% sure I understood the best answer, but it certainly jumped out:
Best Answer: “Hand-written letters for the future.”
Be honest: Did you watch “Hot Frosty” on Netflix?
As it turns out, not all of you were among the literal tens of millions of streamers who made a holiday hit out of this 2024 rom-com about a handsome snowman come to life. And here I thought you all had your priorities straight.
Best Answer: “No but I did watch that horrible one on Netflix where Chad Michael Murray strips for a cause.”
That did it for holiday questions! We may have to run this one back again next year. In the meantime, our thanks as always to everyone who came out.
Photos below. Happy holidays and we’ll see you all in 2026!
