Because those "arbitrary" dates are agreed on by many. So everyone can leave their works on the same day and gather together.

that may be, but I'm totally on board with staggered, a la carte breaks. Esp. considering how many work in places that are mission-critical (or service industry) and don't take the same time off.

Moreover, I find (for myself) very little celebratable about a time of year that :

- it's more expensive to fly during

- revolves around buying, just, stuff.

Viva la holiday revolucion. Let's all pick times that work for us and our loved ones and get off the monoculture train.

My employer has a pretty good policy for that: you can bank any holiday, work on it and take the date later as you wish. It's great for other religions, non-religious people, etc., you can choose to re-use any holiday as you wish.

Would that be a part of your holiday revolución? :P

Hells yeah it would! That's really great - it adds flexibility while not clobbering what other people value. What an elegant solution.

Kids have time off school on Christmas and not two weeks later. And all their friends share a particular experience for the holidays and they will be the only ones not to have that. If you’re not a parent it may not be as big a deal to not be there on major holidays.

It's a Schelling point.