Oh 2017, you dark and twisty nightmare. I can't wait to bid you farewell. While the holidays should be a time of respite, in 2017 — thanks to Trump's ongoing unethical antics and Mercury Retrograde — there was no rest for the weary. If you're feeling angry AF, this holiday rage room is the perfect way to way to rid yourself of your 2017 holiday rage. Not everyone loves the holidays. With the endless Christmas music, mad dashes to find the perfect gift, and forced merrymaking with family members on opposite sides of the political divide, the 2017 holidays can feel like a special kind of hell.
The struggle is real, and someone in London decided to give holiday-hating folks the ultimate Christmas gift — a one-night only chance to get out all of their holiday rage. CBS News in Philadelphia reported that Rudolph's Rage Room in London allowed people to dress up like Santa and smash Christmas trees and decorations to bits while listening to the most despised Christmas music, all for an entry fee of $24. Rudolph's Rage Room, created by award-winning pop-up entrepreneur Meredith O'Shaughnessy, has just refined "deck the halls" forever, and it's exactly what everyone needs right now. Break some balls, snap the tree, um yes, please. Where do I sign up?
"It's the songs — the cold weather — I'm a summer guy," Billy Holmes, a self-professed holiday hater, told CBS News. If you're feeling about as merry and bright as Billy Bob Thornton in Bad Santa, you likely have FOMO about not being able to participate in this rage-y new holiday tradition.
Fear not, my friendlies, rage rooms and anger rooms exist all of the U.S., too. While you might not get the joy of smashing everything holiday related, you can still express your post-holiday rage about that passive-aggressive gift your mom got you, the re-gifted fruitcake from you kooky aunt Gladys, and the general dumpster fire of 2017. Channel your rage like holiday-hater Pearse Egan, who told CBS News, "I just imagined everyone from last Christmas who didn't get me anything and then showed them how it was."
Smashing things in a controlled environment is a safe way to get your rage out so you don't end up taking it out on an actual human instead. If you want to rid yourself of some post-holiday stress, just google "rage rooms in the United States" to find one near you. Because, seriously, they're everywhere. Plenty of people are extra rage-y this holiday season, and since they can't make it to a rage room on Christmas Day, they're venting on Twitter.
"Traffic, job, your boss; everybody gets pissed. I just saw it as a way to release that," Shawn Baker, founder of Tantrums LLC in Houston, told the Guardian about why she started her Texas rage room, which is hosting a raffle through the end of December for someone to win a Christmas-themed rage-room experience.
While Mercury Retrograde might be over, the stress of the holidays is still alive and making people miserable. If you're feeling particularly rage ridden during the 2017 holidays, perhaps it's best to accept that you're just going to do what you can do get through the next 24 hours in one piece.
Get up, make yourself a mimosa, and settle in for a Christmas decompression day by treating yourself to Bad Santa 1 and 2, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and the 24-hour marathon of the A Christmas Story. While you won't get to break anything, it's bound to make you feel better about your life. Because, at least your tongue is not stuck to a pole.
If there is an opportunity to chop firewood, or shovel snow, take it. You can also challenge your family to a game of flag football. LIVESTRONG noted that physical activity is one of the best ways to let go up some pent-up anger. "Physical exercise provides you with an opportunity to release your emotions, especially if you feel as if you're about to explode," Ashely Miller reported.
For people who are not actively expressing their anger, the added stress of the holidays can also induce road rage, according to a press release from Attorney Big Al in Florida. Seriously these are the people who should book a post-holiday rage room appointment ASAP. "We see a lot of road-rage incidents this time of year, and we’ve found that it is a difficult behavior to predict."
So, if you're stuck in a rage vortex, it's best to stay off the road and lay low until you can book an appointment with your local rage room. Because, it really might make you feel better before the next holiday, New Year's Eve, rears its ugly head.
"I feel very distressed and de-raged now," Clare Morris told CBS News about her session at Rudolph's Rage Room. "By this date, I think people are pretty sick of the Christmas music — all the decorations — I think people are done with it and wanna get out some of that stress." Truer words have never been spoken.
