Fandom In Context: All I Want For Christmas Is Memes

Over the last 10 years, netizens canonized several memes, activities, debates and controversies. From Reddit's various gift exchanges to Padoru, an abundance of holiday cheer is just a click away.

In the spirit of staying home and away from your family this December, let's take a look at some of these traditions, how they started and where you can find them.

Reddit

Reddit's two major holiday traditions are gift-giving extravaganzas: Reddit Gifts, a massive Secret Santa game, and /r/RandomActsOfChristmas, a charitable exercise in which generous Redditors buy gifts for children in need. Both activities focus on the best part of the season, giving presents to complete strangers.

Reddit Gifts

Launching in 2009, /r/SecretSanta, later known as Reddit Gifts, is among the biggest and most high-profile events on Reddit every year. On the sub, people sign up to be a part of the biggest Secret Santa game on the internet, sending gifts to other Redditors and receiving random gifts from others.

Within two years of its launch, Reddit Gifts set a Guinness World record for the largest online Secret Santa game, with more than 30,000 participants. The exchange continued to break those records in subsequent years. In 2013, 89,000 people joined the fun, and by 2020, the game had more than 100,000 participating. And it's not just everyday Redditors in the mix, you could get a gift from Bill Gates or Myth Busters' Adam Savage.

Reddit Gifts is always improving, and this year, it's challenges are greater than ever. Providing Christmas cheer during a global pandemic isn't easy. But Cookie Arader, Product Marketing Manager of Reddit Gifts, says that they've created new ways to make the holidays memorable. "Earlier this year, we launched our first-ever stay-at-home gifting series, which focused on quarantine-related activities and hobbies like baking, games, gardening, board games and eSports. Over 25,000 people participated in May's exchange, and we can't wait to see the gifts, stories and connections that come out of this year's Secret Santa experience."

/r/RandomActsOfChristmas

Reddit Gifts isn't the site's only exchange. Eight years ago, inspired by the popular subreddit /r/RandomActsOfPizza, Redditors jenners and pookie85 started /r/RandomActsOfChristmas to help the less fortunate have a great holiday. "Our goal every year is to help Redditor parents in need and provide Christmas gifts for their children through peer to peer gifting using Amazon wishlists," wrote DragonfliesArk a /r/RandomActsOfChristmas mod via direct message. "Parents upload wishlists and strangers, channeling all the goodwill and peace on Earth power in their bellies, buy presents for them."

In less than a decade, the subreddit went from 1,000 subscribers to 13,000 subscribers. "Our Santas help fulfill (meaning 5+ gifts) the wishlists of hundreds of children a season." That's a lot of seasons made bright

Every year, the subreddit hopes to help more kids than the year before, which isn't easy. "The trouble sometimes with being such a seasonal specific subreddit, is that people who need help for Christmas don't find us until after registration has closed (mid to late-mid December, based on shipping debacles info)," DragonfliesArk wrote. "So for anyone interested, come join us and subscribe. Milk and cookies on us!"

Padoru

"Padoru" is one of the biggest Christmas memes in the world. Taken from the video game Fate/Extra, this 11-second clip of the character Nero Claudius singing a Japanese parody of Jingle Bells has been an internet staple since 2011. The mix of cute anime design, a little Santa hat and a delightful little earworm is cheerful enough to top any tree.

Less than a decade later, "Padoru" hasn't lost any steam. Remixes are as common as mistletoe online, with its long life only helping its profile grow. Today, video remixes, GIFS and image edits adorn the internet like so much holly and tinsel. Think of it as the Internet's Charlie Brown Christmas Special. Love it or hate it, every year, you're watching it. Who am I kidding? You love it. Everyone loves it.

Holiday Light Show Videos

Obviously, Holiday Light Shows aren't specific to the internet. Anyone with a means of transportation, or merely an overly enthusiastic neighbor, can enjoy one of these. But for those without either, the internet does a good job filling the void.

The earliest Holiday Light Show videos online date back to 2004. Mason, Ohio resident Carson Williams used more than 16,000 lights to create a light show synchronized with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's instrumental "Wizards In Winter." Assuming they weren't distracted by the flashing lights and careened off the road, those driving by could hear the song if turned to the correct station.

Holiday light shows have since become a regular occurrence online. Searching YouTube, you can find meme-specific ones, fail video and yuletide confrontations between neighbors. This year, you're sure to find ones with those giant Home Depot skeletons that some were too lazy to take down after Halloween.

The "Is Die Hard A Christmas Movie" Debate

In need of a debate this holiday season? There's nothing quite as annoying as the yearly "Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?" discourse. Kept afloat by neckbeards in search of something, anything to be quasi-contrarian about, "Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?" is an argument with no one because no one is arguing against it.

Since the 2007 publication of Slate's "guide to overlooked Christmas movies," people around the web have worked hard to impress people with his hackneyed opinion. Pay them no heed. You don't have to have this argument to enjoy Die Hard this December 25. You can simply enjoy Die Hard, an action movie set at Christmas, complete with several holiday bangers that'll have you saying yippie kai yay, Mr. Falcon. Still, this conversation beats navigating the minefield of the Starbucks Red Cup debate that Fox News drums up every December for the War on Christmas.