Fun and Notable Holidays and Observances has been a growing trend, particularly in the United States over the past 15 years. Up until around 2010, there were only a handful of good holiday websites and only a few creating and reporting on the newly established holidays.
Today there are 100’s of websites about these daily holidays as more people rush to the trend of being a source for holidays around the globe. The problem that I see is that most of these websites are setting up just to make money. And yes, that is a problem.
Back in the mid-2000’s, it was a trend for these money hungry sharks to build a website that would rank on the first page of google that provided no information, just ads that would make them money. Google cracked down and stopped ranking those sites. But that doesn’t stop the sharks. They find new ways and one of them is to create informational sites for the same purpose. The problem there is that now everyone is doing it. Everyone is looking to the SEO rules and doing the exact same thing. Everyone is using AI to create content just to set up websites to make money. It seems that true passionate writing and information is much harder to come by.
While I am a proponent of making money, I believe in Google and the concept that they have of ranking the good content. The people who have websites who write about their passions. The people who have websites that provide a product or service. So the problem is that there are not enough of these in the holiday realm and too many of the money hungry sharks.
So here is my breakdown of the top 10 holiday websites:
#1 – HolidaySmart.com – Holiday Smart is one of the original websites for holidays, starting back in 1998, this site has had its ups and downs, and is currently in an up swing. With daily fun holidays, federal holidays, world holidays, and fun stuff, HolidaySmart is all about the passion for uniting people through holidays. The owner started and continues to promote celebrating holidays to unite people, not propagandize people. Not alot of ads on the site and no hype, this website is doing it right.
#2 – Holidays-and-Observances.com – This website started in 2010 and has quickly become one of my favorites. I think it is because it is a person who talks about the holidays and shares information in a friendly and easy to navigate way. There is not alot of information on each holiday as it is mostly a listing format for information, and it has an older style to the website design, but it is very likable. It is kept up to date in the content, doesn’t have hype or use propaganda to promote itself, and is very down to earth kinds of feel.
#3 – TimeandDate.com – Time and Date has been the official source for worldwide calendar information and federal holidays since the start of the internet. The reason they are not first is because they are not all about holidays. It is one of the many resources the site offers. They also seem to be a bit confused on the U.S. holidays because of the word “National” that many of the unofficial holidays are using. I believe you either need to list all of the unofficial holidays, or none of them. The ones they have seem to be promoted to them and might even be paid for listings.
#4 – Web-Holidays.com – This is another website that started back in 1999 by someone who is passionate about sharing holidays. There is no fee for adding a holiday, no massive hype or propaganda, just a nice site good holiday content and information. I honestly never knew about this site until recently. Maybe it was their most recent updates that put them on the radar to be found!
# 5 – BrownieLocks.com – Brownie Locks makes my list because it is one of the original holiday websites starting in 1999. The owner keeps up with the content, not the design and let’s you know that flat out. The website is clearly a passionate holiday enthusiast. One thing that has always put me off a bit about this site is that the owner seems to think they are the authority and every other website is copying them. I mean no offence, but it actually makes me laugh when I read the warnings to not copy any of the holidays. And I laugh because I get it! I think it stems from being one of the originals and seeing these marketing companies come and just take the holiday information for monetary gain. But, unless the holiday is created and copyrighted by BrownieLocks, any other website can also list the holiday. And even if it was created by them, I would think they would welcome other sites listing it.
#6 – HolidayInsights.com – this is an original holiday website like many listed above. The reason it does not rank higher on my list is because it doesn’t seem to put as much effort into keeping up with new holidays. Interestingly, it adds some new ones, but doesn’t have nearly the amount of holidays that the others have listed. It does have good information and like the sites above, stays away from the hype, does its research, and seems to be a hobby for the owner more than a money-maker.
The Next 4 are top ranking sites on Google, but not top on my list because I feel they are in it for the money more than the passion.
#7 – DaysoftheYear – a descent listing of daily fun and notable holidays, but does not give an overall view of dates. If you are searching for just one date, this site has a pretty layout for that. They definitely play off of the SEO of the word “National” on all of the daily holidays. And if you don’t already know my opinion about that, click here. They also seem to have unnatural web stats with most of the higher ones not in the U.S.
#8 – CheckiDay – similar layout to the #7 site, however, this one is lower because of the ego of the owner. They seem to copy every other site, do it in high quantities claiming to have 3 times the amount of holidays of any other website (not true from what I’ve seen), and they boast all these places that talk about them which to me screams, I paid for press release service that promotes to blogs so that I could seem better than I am. No offence (or take offence!) I do not like these websites that come along and piggy back off of the ideas and content of other sites than boast that they are so much better when all they are doing is a marketing plan to look better.
#9 – NationalDayCalendar – at the low end of my list and would be last if there was not a marketing company to win the last spot. The reason is because in my opinion, this company is all about the ego. They started the horrible trend of adding the preamble “National” to every single daily observance, regardless of whether it was intended by the creator. They act as an authority with a “registrar” where submitters pay for the honor of being listed on their site. They are not the authority. They started in 2013 and marketed on the backs of the originals. On the plus side, they are good at marketing. But certainly not any kind of special authority as they claim to be.
#10 – NationalToday – this one is last on my list even though it shows up first on many daily holiday searches. The reason is because it was started in 2017 by a marketing company clearly looking to monetize and use holidays for marketing purposes. They excel at hype and propaganda, capitalizing on keywords, reaching out to the press, and basically know how to market their website. Everything they do is on the backs of the other holiday websites who have done the research, who have the passion and integrity, and who more deserve the click-throughs.