Merry Mischief!

Being festive should always involve strong aspects of human emotion, though I prefer the more positive ones myself... One I appreciate a lot is being scandalous, in any not quite devilish sense, which is why most people learn to love April Fool's Day, unless, of course, their experience with it involves shitty practical jokes...

There is something about the physicality of the latter, whether bad or not, that is not directly appealing to most: if part of the joke rests on how slow one is to get out of the way of a falling backet of water, it's just bland.

Not to mention that people may be hurt as well.

You see, jokes are a primarily encephalical endeavour: the point is to trick the other party, not to hurt them; if you can do so at their own game, so much the better.

Here's a thought: use tradition to your advantage; people will try to stick to it by all means possible, or be hesitant enough for all of you, them included, to laugh at the expense of tradition itself.

Above all, of course, have fun!