Want to survive “Blue Monday”? Maybe a Chicken Chucker would help.

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Each year a mid-January day is designated “Blue Monday” — allegedly the most depressing day out of the  365 or 366, according to a formula concocted by a guy named Cliff Arnall.

A former tutor at the University of Cardiff, Arnall seems to have created Blue Monday as a publicity stunt for a travel agency. Still, the reasoning seems pretty sound to me: A combination of consumer debt from holiday spending, post-holiday letdown, crappy weather and failed New Year’s resolutions make us feel like hell.

The big day this year is Monday, Jan. 16. And this week’s giveaway is a medium-sized box o’ weird designed to cheer you up, or at least to distract you until Tuesday, Jan. 17.

The box contains:

Survival Chocolate. Well, how are you going to survive Blue Monday without some dark chocolate (55% cocoa) from Bloomsberry & Co.? Or put it in the freezer for a month and give it to your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day.

“I Am America (And So Can You!).” This book by non-con Stephen Colbert is hilarious. Laughter is the best medicine – after dark chocolate, that is.

Two books by Jeff Yeager. Frugal can be funny! “The Cheapskate Next Door” and “The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches” will surely combat the blues. Extra cheapskate points if you’re careful not to break the spines so that you can re-gift, sell or trade them. (Hint: If you plan to do that, don’t eat the chocolate while reading the books.)

Stress ball. It’s blaze orange and bears the logo of Cozi.com – loot from one of the conferences I attended this year. Should Blue Monday press your rage button, squeeze the ball rather than a co-worker’s neck.

Two toys from Happy Meals. One is from “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked” and the other is a Power Rangers Samurai. Play with them when your supervisor isn’t looking.

Stainless steel water bottle. Water. Yes. Water! That’s the clear beverage I’m sipping! (Alternate scenarios: iced tea, POM, orange juice.) The bottle bears the logos of Microsoft and the University of Washington, if such things matter to you.

A Hello Kitty clip. “It’s for clipping things,” my 5-year-old nephew explained gravely. I double-dog-dare you to use it to clip together reports, to see if your boss is paying attention.

A funny self-stick note pad. These sticky notes from Oatmeal Studios say, “I’m not living in denial…I’m just visiting.” If your boss liked the Hello Kitty clip, he or she will love the sticky notes.

A Chicken Chucker. Now how can you be glum when you have the chance to slingshot little plastic fowls around the room? You also have the opportunity to quip, “Look! Poultry in motion!” Lots of fun at work, guaranteed.

Ready, aim, fire!

Magnetic poetry kit. This time it really is poetry, or at least the makings of it: a small Ziploc bag filled with all sorts of magnetized words. It’s designed for the refrigerator, but you might want to avoid that particular appliance due to the “eat until you can’t walk” aspect of Seasonal Affective Disorder. Instead, I suggest you invite a couple of friends over for a poetry contest – done on the coffee table, to keep you away from the fridge. Here’s what I came up with in just a few minutes:

She was one wet turtle girl, saying

“Love is the music of mud.

“Imagine if magic came silently and fed upon dreams.

“But I cocoon in a bouncy castle.”

That’s deep, man. So deep that it made me want to raid the fridge.

To enter:

If you do any (or all!) of these things, please leave separate, additional comments to get credit for each entry.

The deadline is 9 p.m. PST Monday, Jan. 9. That gives me a week to get the prize to the winner. The rest of you will have to seek your own solace, whether that’s chocolate or chicken. Or both.

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124 thoughts on “Want to survive “Blue Monday”? Maybe a Chicken Chucker would help.”

  1. I love the idea of Blue Monday and your explanation of it makes sense. I don’t know about holiday letdown but we still have jet lag – hoping it doesn’t last until the 16th. I’d love this weird combo of giveaways.

    Reply

  7. A box o’ weird? Sign me up! And, as always, thanks for the giveaway. And as my ‘gift’ to you, I offer a quip from my teenaged son:

    Me: This family just keeps getting weirder and weirder.
    Son: At least there’s progress being made!

    He’s a bit of a smart alek, but he comes by it honestly…

    Reply

  15. I live in Canada, where every Monday in January (also February) is a Blue Monday. So please, random number generator, pick lucky 15!

    Reply

  16. This sounds just so much fun, thank you Donna for putting together something so perfect for beating the blues! I would soooo walk around work using that Chicken Clucker…hmmm…and maybe recording it for later YouTube fun 🙂

    Reply

  18. Virginia – If you win, promise me you’ll let me know when to expect the YouTube video! And if I win, I’ll do the same!

    Reply

  19. I don’t buy it–that’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day! I have that day off work, so I won’t be down. I’ll be happier that day than on most January days 😛

    That said, though, I’d love to win a chicken chucker. 😀

    Reply

  23. Yay! I so need this. After a terrible 2011 I’m trying to get 2012 off to a great start but the winter blues have got me down. Thanks for the chance to win this very fun kit.

    Reply

  30. And I like you on FB! (Incidentally, I wish there were more buttons on there, like perhaps an “Adore” button, or a “Loathe” button. ah well.)

    Reply

  31. Thank you for the wonderful giveaways. I need the Jeff Yeager book – as in NOW!!! And that chicken chucker is hilarious. The magnetic poetry kit and everything else – I don’t think I will ever have a Blue Monday!

    Reply

  32. Oh the January blues! They’re going to be prevalent for me next week when I have to work FIVE days in a row after having worked three shorter weeks over the holidays. I would love to shoot those chickens at my CHEAP-we-don’t-do-bonuses-around-here-no-matter-how-many-hundreds-of-millions-we-make-or-how-many-luxury-cars-and-yachts-I-have-BOSSES. Oops, did I just type that out loud?

    Reply

  35. Brand new to your blog. Just read the piece: Think You’re Broke? You Probably Aren’t. – Awesome, made me realize how fortunate myself and my family is.

    Hope I win this one.

    Thanks.

    Reply

  51. Not a single Hello Kitty comment?! Britain would be mortified!! However, I must admit the chicken chucker sounds like a lot of fun. I can picture it now… “Mom, Ms. W threw a rubber chicken at me today because I wasn’t paying attention in class!”

    Reply

  53. I work in insurance. To use a LoLcat expression, “I can haz funny, pweez?” I’d appreciate something to make Mondays a little less blue.

    Reply

  63. Blue Monday will also be the day after my son’s baptism, so we’ll be exhausted from hosting 30+ family and friends for the event (and, oh, caring for a two-month-old). So if I won this, I might use the chicken chucker to launch the chocolate in to my tired mouth.

    Reply

  83. Every Monday is a blue Monday when you work in financial aid at a private college… These items would really help boost the morale of myself and my coworkers! (I subscribe via email!)

    Reply

  86. I follow you via email and could make serious use of a chicken chunker as I have a small collection of minature rubber chickens

    Reply

  88. I want it, I want it!

    And the magnetic poetry kit,
    would likely get me out of a snit,
    and then I would not have to throw a fit,
    but I could throw the chicken,
    which appears too small to take a lickin.

    Reply

  113. I have been following you since “Surviving and Thriving” went viral! I love your stuff, you remind me of family…which makes me a little homesick.

    Reply

  118. I also liked you on facebook because my husband really would like a chicken chucker, and my keeping up with the Joneses friends could really use your insight on frugality and stuff. By the way it is 9:42 Central time right now not 3:42 am

    Reply
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