When: December 12, 2023
On December 12th of each year there comes a fun and special day in the United States – Ding-A-Ling Day!
What with everyone focused on other major holidays in December, this wonderful little holiday often gets over looked.
But we think it should definitely be one to celebrate!
What Exactly Is National Ding-A-Ling Day?
You may be thinking that the phrase “Ding-A-Ling” is referring to the song, “My Ding A Ling”, by Chuck Berry.
Or maybe you are thinking of the slang use of the phrase that refers to “a stupid, foolish or eccentric person.” (Dictionary.com)
But you would be wrong on both counts.
National Ding-A-Ling day is actually meant to remind you and push you to make a phone call and touch base with someone whom you haven’t spoken to in a long time.
It’s meant to remind you to get in touch with an old classmate, family members, a best friend, or anyone whom you haven’t heard from lately.
History Of National Ding-A-Ling Day
The origin of National Ding-a-ling Day is one of those quirky American inventions.
It started back in the early 1970’s 1970’s when Franky Hyle of Melrose Park, IL and a group of friends created the National Ding-A-Ling Club. The idea was to be friendlier to one another by keeping in touch. The sound that the phone would make (back in the 1970’s) was a ding-a-ling – hence the name.
The club grew and today it’s a national holiday every 12th December.
You can read more about this history and Franky Hyle in an article from the Lakeland Ledger.
Ways To Celebrate National Ding-A-Ling Day
As mentioned above, the purpose and goal of this great little holiday is to get in touch with anyone whom you haven’t spoken to or heard from in some time.
There are some creative things to do to get into the holiday spirit of the day. Definitely be sure to prepare for and celebrate this holiday with a senior loved one (or anyone really!).
1. Prepare – First thing’s first – sometime before December 12th spend some time over coffee and dessert with your senior loved one and go through some photos and/or an old phone book. Make a list of people you or they haven’t spoken to or heard from lately.
Hopefully you’ll have the people’s name and home or cell phone number. If not you may have to do a little bit of investigating. Try calling someone you know who might have that number and also look for the person online either on Google or on social media platforms, such as Facebook.
If you’re going to hunt for someone online I would recommend to put their name in quotes and then the name of the city/town or state they live in.
Example: In the Google search box type in “jon angeler” + “seattle”
2. Prioritize – You may end up being on the phone for quite some time with each person (especially if you end up with a larger list of people to call). So, prioritize your list as to whom you want to talk to first and take it from there.
After all – if you have such a large list to get through you can always carry over the holiday to the following days!
Who says you have to make ALL your phone calls just on National Ding-A-Ling Day?
3. Have Fun – Hopefully your conversations with friends and family that you have lost a bit of contact with will go well and you may just find out that you end up picking up right where you left off!
You may want to set up a time to meet or visit each other or if that’s not possible, at least set up a time to call each other again.
This National Ding-A-Ling Day is a wonderful way to open up a conversation with your senior loved one about past friends and relatives. It may give you all an opportunity to contact each other, reminisce and maybe even spark up old friendships.
So go ahead, get yourself in that wonderful holiday mood by making a ding-a-ling of a call to celebrate National Ding-A-Ling Day on December 12th!
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