Making Timely Content for Upcoming Holidays
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): TomKin Consulting, LLC
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020
Holidays are like opinions. Everyone’s got one. As a matter of fact, funnily enough, clichés are like opinions in that sense, too. However, holidays seem more fun. They’re less jarring to the ears, or eyes, than corny jokes from a stray Canadian.
Whether statutory holidays, public holidays, national holidays, or legal holidays, they’re, basically, performing the same service for everyone. It’s time off. As with any area of writing focus, there will be the dos and don’ts. But nothing will be ironclad.
When thinking about writing, the main emphasis is the intended message and the recipients of the intended message. The purpose is to link those two points of contact, author and audience, with the intended message with as little noise as possible.
“Noise” being a diminishment of the clarity of the intended message. That’s whether framed the wrong way, written culturally inappropriately, with spelling and grammatical errors, or any number of issues. Writing is an art. So, any written work about holidays will be, similarly, based on artistic principles.
What is a holiday?
Good question, couldn’t have asked it better myself, it’s time off. It’s time away. It’s a celebration. It’s a national remembrance. It’s a triumphal sense of bringing everyone together as a cohesive group. In practical terms, you get to leave the world behind you for a little bit.
All these are part of a holiday. But there are types of holidays too. I’m thinking of public holidays, national holidays, and legal holidays. According to the Government of British Columbia, statutory holidays, or stat holidays/stats, are holidays, particularly employee paid holidays if the employee qualifies.
Public Holidays, based on Wikipedia (not the greatest resource, but a good general one), are, in fact, stats. They’re the same holiday by another name. National holidays, Merriam-Webster states, “…a holiday celebrated throughout a nation… one commemorating the first or independence of a nation.”
Legal holidays, based on the Cambridge Dictionary, are a legal holiday, so one of the days of the year in which government offices and businesses aren’t open. Okay, cool, what about some examples, sensei? Another excellent question!
Some Canadian examples are New Year’s Day on January 1, Family Day on February 17, Good Friday on April 10, Canada Day on July 1, Labour Day on September 7, Thanksgiving Day on October 12, Remembrance Day on November 11, and Christmas Day on December 25.
If Americans reading this, then it’s much the same. I believe the Thanksgiving Day for Americans is different and things like Canada Day aren’t there. The point of a holiday is less important than its general function. It means workers don’t work, or have such an option.
In free societies with labor rights, this is the deal. We’ve struck this bargain as English-speaking North American societies – Canadians and Americans – between owners/managers and workers/employees. We’re better for it, too, in my opinion.
What appeals to readers around holiday times?
Another fantastic question, gosh, you’re on a roll. It depends. Given the number of holidays, you can just look at the above list. The differences between countries’ holidays, and the types of holidays. It’s a mess. There’s a lot to celebrate. A lot to use to take time off.
So, when we’re writing content about holidays, it’s good to be timely with it. Don’t write Christmas blogs or articles before Halloween has finished, it’s a faux pas. It’s like being the neighbour who puts the lights up for Christmas on or before Halloween – ew.
Every single facet of a holiday will appeal at the time right before the holiday. If it’s Christmas, then it’s the everything every Canadian and American loves right on time. Think of the bells, the sleigh and reindeer manikins on the front lawn, the fake and real Christmas trees, the decorations, the wrapping paper, all of this is Christmas in the mind of the reader.
So, when you’re working to write about the right holiday at the right time, the timeliness of the content is relevant for the appeal to the readers. Readers, outside of outright fanatics, will ignore Christmas content during Halloween ‘season.’
Another important variable to consider regarding the appeal. It is encapsulating the holiday in the content devoted to the holiday. Spiders can be associated with Halloween, for example. But are spiders primarily linked to Halloween? Not truly, right? So, I would make an effort to include them, but secondarily.
When I think of Halloween, and I consider writing on the subject, I reflect on the history, the trips as a kid, the costumes, the parental angst, the candy gathered door-to-door, the night-time, and the dentist handing me a toothbrush and flush with a reluctant child accepting it as a ‘gift.’
The appeal of a holiday is the appropriateness of the content to the holiday and the proper timing, the timeliness, of the article.
Why the big holidays?
Once more, kudos on the great question. The big holidays in North America include two already mentioned: Halloween and Christmas. When you’re thinking about writing some content on the holidays, I would think about the big holidays.
These are the types of posts to drive more traffic to the website. The big American public holidays are numerous. Some include New Year’s Day, New Year’s Eve, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Eve & Christmas.
So, you’ve got this list of holidays. This shouldn’t be the sole focus of any blog, except unusual holiday junkies. However, these can some content throughout the year, year on year. It’s as if the holiday articles can become anchors. Anchors for the other material.
The topics are pre-selected and pre-scheduled. That’s for the entirety of the year of 2020, 2021, and so on. Then you simply need to bring up the subject matter and move forward from that point. The big holidays, in particular, because everyone recognizes them. These will show on search engines more readily.
How would this look and feel in the end, dear friend?
A holiday is a time, generally, of celebration tied to time off. That’s the general, casual notion of it. There are a bunch more meanings mentioned throughout the article. But that’s peripheral. People work. They want time off. They get time off. Holidays manifest this.
So, generally speaking, holidays are positive. They’re happy times. People go to Ghana. They go to Cancun. They simply want away from the troubles. Or they want time with family, with their kids, e.g., Christmas. Or they want to celebrate their pride as national citizens of America.
These are all wonderful things. To write a blog post on it, you’ll use the same principles as any other mainstream blog post. It’ll be concise, topical, informative, appropriate, and relevant.
Similarly, it’ll keep itself timely. As in, it will be right before the holiday. It’s have catchy titles. Titles like “Christmas Time for 2020,” “Halloween is Hallow’s Eve,” “Labor Day is My Day to Not Labor,” and so on.
People find these fun. Especially if they include fun facts, it’s history, notable people, and deeper meaning. Things other people do on it. These could give ideas for them. If it’s time off, some people will incorporate these idea as suggestions.
Which is great, everyone deserves a break from the world. And that’s the core of a holiday anyway, as far as I’m concerned. It goes back to the time off. A time to take off from the world and celebrate.
If you can bring that feeling to the printed word for the reader, then you’ve hit the mark. If not, try again. And if you keep missing, no worries, there’s always a holiday around the corner to hone writings skills some more.
License
In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.
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