What to Celebrate November 8 thru 14, 2021
Celebration Ideas for November 8 – 14, 2021
Leaves are falling and holiday planning is well under way. And of course each day brings new opportunities for having fun and advocating for causes you believe in.
So do jump right in to take a peek and plan your week. And as always, remember to …
Enjoy!
Celebrate All November Long
Protect your skin and the environment. Enjoy picture books. Learn about sponges. We have an eclectic selection of monthly celebrations for you to choose from.
No Straw November: If you use a straw this month, make it a reusable one. Or a biodegradable one. Because while straws are tiny, we use more than 500 million each day in the US alone. So when we use single-use plastic straws, plastic pollution adds up quickly.
Picture Book Month: Get your youngest kids excited about books this month! Get some new picture books & read them together. Real, physical, turn the pages by hand books, that is. No picture e-books!
World Sponge Month: We’re pretty sure this isn’t actually a real unofficial month. But sponges are actually fascinating creatures, so why not celebrate them anyway?
National Healthy Skin Month: We’re entering dry, flaky, cracked skin season, so it’s the perfect time to talk about healthy skin. Especially if you’ve been neglecting your skin. Get back into a regular skin-care regimen to keep you skin at its best all winter long.
Weekly Celebrations for November’s 2nd Week
Appreciate animal shelters, play games at the library, and make sure you don’t drive to either of those events (or any others) while drowsy.
National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week (November 7 – 13, 2021): Show your local animal shelters how much you appreciate them by adopting, fostering, volunteering, and/or donating (money or supplies). And spread the word about the good work your favorite shelters are doing.
Drowsy Driving Prevention Week (November 7 – 14, 2021): Drowsy driving is unfortunately too common. And more dangerous than most people probably realize. Take some time this week to learn why and how to avoid being the one who dozes off behind the wheel.
International Games Week (November 7 – 13, 2021): Are you ready for some fun & games? Of course you are! For this week libraries across the country hold gaming events. See if yours is participating and go have some fun.
Celebration Days coming up for Nov. 8 thru Nov. 14
Freedom, kindness, and science for peace. Cappuccinos, scrapple, and sundaes. Plus origami, pet rodents, & more. Sounds like a recipe for another fun-tastic week!
November 8:
Cook Something Bold and Pungent Day: Make your home smell heavenly by cooking something filled with garlic & spices & whatever else smells as good as it tastes.
Abet and Aid Punsters Day: Girls just want to have puns! Yes, that was terrible. And that’s just what this day should be filled with: terrible puns! Spout off as many as you can think of & encourage everyone to do the same. Then laugh at them all.
National STEM/STEAM Day: Celebrate the fascinating & growing fields of science, technology, engineering, art, & math for this day. And help get the next generation interested in these subjects. Because without them innovation will grind to a halt!
X-ray Day: Also known as World Radiography Day, this day celebrates the accidental discovery of x-radiation by Wilhelm Roentgen in 1895. Then he started studying what these rays could do and the rest, as they say, is history.
National Harvey Wallbanger Day: Enjoy the spiked orange juice cocktail called Harvey Wallbanger. This delightful drink couldn’t be simpler to make: 1 part Galliano, 3 parts vodka, & 6 parts orange juice. Mix up & enjoy! If you want to get fancy garnish with an orange slice and/or maraschino cherry.
National Cappuccino Day: Swap out your morning coffee for a Cappuccino!
November 9:
World Freedom Day: Celebrate the anniversary of the fall of Communism in Eastern & Central Europe, as symbolized by the fall of the Berlin Wall. The famous (or maybe infamous) Wall crumbled (with a lot of help!) in 1989. In 2001 George W. Bush declared the anniversary of this momentous event as an annual observance, celebrating freedom from authoritarian rule and also recognizing the billions of people still living under such rule.
Microtia Awareness Day: Have you ever heard of microtia? It’s a condition where someone is born with one or both ears underdeveloped or even missing completely. Many people with this condition also have some level of hearing loss because the ear canal may also not develop right. Why not learn more about this condition for the day?
National Scrapple Day: Make yourself some scrapple to enjoy for breakfast in celebration of this odd but delicious creation. You will need to make the actual scrapple loaf ahead of time to have it ready for breakfast.
November 10:
NET Cancer Awareness Day: Learn about neuroendocrine cancers for the day. Then help spread the word about this rare cancer & advocate for more research into it.
World Science Day for Peace and Development: Celebrate science! More specifically, celebrate science’s important role in society and its relevance to our everyday lives. And advocate for better science literacy, so more people understand its importance and how it benefits societies. This year’s theme for the day is “Building Climate-Ready Communities”.
Area Code Day: Celebrate the creation of those 3 little numbers that come before your “regular” phone number. Because without them there’d be a whole lot fewer numbers available for us to use. And calling someone outside of your local area would be impossible. AT&T came up with the idea in the 1940s, and Area Codes became official for all of North America with the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), implemented in 1947.
Windows Day: A little more than a month after Microsoft released Windows 11 we celebrate the anniversary of a different release: Windows 1.0 on Nov. 10, 1983. And much like every Windows version since, uptake was slow. Apparently Windows didn’t gain much traction until Windows 3.0.
National Vanilla Cupcake Day: Your treat for the day is vanilla cupcakes! Homemade vanilla cupcakes if you can manage it.
November 11:
Armistice Day: We call it Veterans Day now, but the observance began as Armistice Day in 1919, remembering the end of World War I on the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” one year previously. President Eisenhower changed the name to Veterans Day in 1954, and the day honors all veterans, living and dead, from all wars.
Death/Duty Day: WWI may have officially ended at 11 am on Nov. 11, 1918, but the armistice had actually been signed almost 6 hours earlier, just past 5 am. And while many waited patiently for those final hours, others decided to keep fighting until the bitter end, costing another 10,000+ lives. This observance honors those lives lost so unnecessarily.
Origami Day: Can you fold paper? Then you can make origami! Well … simple origami, anyway. Some origami creations are quite complicated! We celebrate this creative pursuit on Nov. 11 because origami cranes were made to symbolize peace as WWI ended. Why not try your hand at making some origami cranes?
National Sundae Day: Celebrate Friday Eve with a sundae. Head out to your favorite ice cream shop or make one of these creative sundaes.
November 12:
Fancy Rat & Mouse Day: Did you know rats & mice make great pets? They do! Although we wouldn’t recommend grabbing a mouse from your yard or a rat from a nearby alley to keep. But fancy rats & mice, bred for pets and showing, are a different story. They’re fascinating and yes, you read that previous sentence right: There are competition shows for rats & mice! Use this day to see if you might decide to bring home one of these cuties as a pet.
World Pneumonia Day: The world may be focused on COVID-19 right now (and it should be), but we can’t forget about other serious illnesses either. And pneumonia is one of the most serious. It killed about 2.5 million people in 2019. But that’s not the whole story: Breathing polluted air can make it more likely you’ll die from pneumonia. Learn more for this day.
National French Dip Day: Make yourself French Dip sandwiches for a satisfyingly tasty Friday evening.
National Pizza with the Works Except Anchovies Day: If you’re just not up to making French Dip after a long week, order yourself a pizza with everything except anchovies. Now, we don’t support this anti-anchovy message, but we know some of you are probably weird & don’t like the delightful little fishies. 😉
November 13:
World Kindness Day: Be kind. That is all. (ok, maybe not quite all … be kind the other 364 days of the year too!)
National Indian Pudding Day: Make Indian pudding for dessert! This all-American creation likely came about because the colonists couldn’t make plum pudding so they created something new using cornmeal and molasses. It’s not a pretty dish, but it is delicious! And it’ll look a bit prettier if you top each serving with ice cream or whipped cream.
Sandwich Day: Have different sandwiches for every meal of the day. Simple and delicious!
November 14:
National Seat Belt Day: Celebrate the “most effective safety technology” ever created for cars. Yes, the effectiveness of all the other bells & whistles in modern cars pales in comparison to simply buckling up. So make sure the car doesn’t move until everyone is safely buckled up, on this day and every day.
National American Teddy Bear Day: If you missed National Teddy Bear Day in September, here’s another chance to celebrate the cute, cuddly stuffed bear. Pull out your old, well-loved Teddy bear if you have it. Or buy a brand new teddy bear to love. You can pretend it’s for your kids if that makes you feel better. 😉
National Family PJ Day: What better way to spend your Sunday than lounging around in your PJs all day?! And this year you’re in luck, because this fun day lands on Sunday! So gather all your favorite people to watch movies and/or play games in your PJs all day. Feel free to cuddle teddy bears, too. 🥰 Perfection.
National Pickle Day: Snack on pickles during your Family PJ Day. And add pickles to everything, too! They don’t all have to be pickled cucumbers, either (yes, we know the word “pickle” by itself usually means the cucumber kind, but does it really matter?). Consider some pickled carrots, okra, or even eggs for variety!
National Spicy Guacamole Day: Pickles in your spicy guacamole? Why not?! Use pickled onion in place of fresh & you’re all set!
