Christmas Wars, etc. I
Once upon a time there was a holy day called Christmas. This was replaced by the Holiday Season, which was one campaign in the War on Christmas and on all things Christian. For several years American conservatives have been waging their own war, the War Against the War on Christmas.
This year, however, we are witnessing the culmination of a new phase in the campaign, namely, the War Against the War Against the War on Christmas. According to the anti-Christian activists and news readers who decide what is permissible to say, anyone who says there is a War on Christmas is ipso facto (though they would not use a Latin phrase that conjures up the specter of Western Christianity) a—gasp—anti-semite. Does that mean that it is anti-semtic not to be philo-semitic? Jeemenetti, as we used to say in high school, life here in these United States gets complicated.
In past years I have expressed no little skepticism about conservative campaigns to put the holy back in holiday and the X back into Xmas. I was a little unfair. I have warm memories of Christmastime in the 1950's. Despite being one of only two atheists in my elementary school (the other was my sister), I loved Christmas. My sister and I learned Christmas carols and hymns which we played on the piano and sang. We looked forward eagerly to the Christmas pageant in school, and in second grade I was chosen to read Luke's Gospel. I was almost intoxicated by the beauty of the Authorized Version. It never occurred to me once that there was something wrong in celebrating Christmas, either in our non-believing house, where we did everything Christians did (my mother was still, at least superstitious and very probably a believer) or in a public school. And I do not recall a word of complaint from my father's Communist friend or from my mother's Jewish friend.
Well, as one of my favorite Jewish poets says,
"Riding in a Stutz Bearcat, Jim
You know, those were different times.
All poets studied rules of verse
And those ladies, they rolled their eyes
The problem with nostalgia is the way it blinds us to reality. Of course, it was a better world when I was a boy, but it was not a Christian world. I doubt that many of my little Lutheran friends grew up thinking much about their faith and I doubt that very many of them today are anything but occasional conformists to the holiday seasons. It is not so much Christmas that the pro-Christmas warriors are defending (Tom Piatak excepted) as the Xmas celebrated by people who do not know that the spot marked by the X is Bethlehem.
I get the feeling sometimes that the defense of Christmas has more to do with Nat King Cole and the Andy Wiliams Christmas Special—complete with the family Andy hired for the occasion, since his real wife was doing time for murdering her lover. Only a Grinch would object to Santa Claus, Rudolf, and "I saw mommy smoochin' Santy Claus" (in Homer and Jethro's comic version). To eliminate Christmas is tantamount to saying, with another and better poet, "And there's no such thing as Dr. Seuss or Disneyland and Mother Goose, no nursery rhymes." We have gone from the God who through His Son created all things visible and invisible to the god who made little green apples.
I have never understood why non-Christian conservatives like Rush Limbaugh or our friends at VDARE get so het up about Christmas. To their credit, they see our Holy Day as an important part of the Western/European tradition that is being eliminated by multi-culturalism and mass immigration They are right, of course, but there is something of an inversion of values. We could eliminate all the Christmas music ever written, outlaw Christmas trees and figgie pudding, carry out Scrooge's wish: "If I could work my will any idiot who goes around with a Merry Christmas on his lips would be cooked with his own turkey and buried with a stake of holly through his heart," and it would not matter that much to those who keep Christ in their heart all year long.
And so, though I deeply appreciate the support we Christians get from non-believers at this time of year, I sometimes wish they would not. We are allies in many wars, but perhaps this should not be one of them. Those who like Charles Dickens are scandalized by the name of Christ should not be defending Christmas. Leave that war to poor benighted Christians like Tom Piatak.
I suppose, in this miserable world, we should be grateful for any support we can get. Besides, well-intentioned non-believers are a little bit the way I was as a young atheist. Hearing and saying the words, listening to the songs, going through the motions—as it were—with friends and family may draw us ineluctably toward the Church. Peter (the saint!) tells Christian wives: "Be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear." In this spirit, let us pray that all good men will be converted by their Christian wives—and friends.
[Next installment: The Triumph of Ebeneezer Scrooge"]
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A nice post and for that I thank Dr. Fleming. It is folly to think that what the public has celebrated as Christmas for the 30 years I have been aware of it is a Christian celebration. There are glimpses of it true (from Linus on the Charlie Brown Christmas special to the "But thou Bethlehem" covers of Chronicles that I miss) but most of it has nothing to do with the Incarnation. The Christmas music that has been playing since the first week of November has everything to say about how wonderful the time of the year is and how jolly Santa is and how we should all keep the spirit of Christmas in our hearts all year long and how all Mariah Carey wants for Christmas is me apparently (take a number and get in line, Ms. Carey). I am always surprised by how little of Christ is in so much of the classic Christmas literature. Dickens is to be expected but even the various Christmas pieces in Washington Irving's "Sketch Book" has little to do with the faith save some odd swipes at the Puritans in favor of high Anglicanism. And the classic "Dakota Christmas" by J.Bottum? Not exactly serving religion in the public square...
Does anyone ever mention that Christmas begins on Christmas Day? I never minded the Jingle Belly part of Christmas, but try to shun it after the true Christmas season begins. That makes the opponents of Xmas look all the more like the petty tyrants they aspire to be. The best way to recapture Christmas is for each Christian to set an example by observing the liturgical calendar (even if not a Catholic) and by praying and receiving the sacraments.
"We have gone from the God who through His Son created all things visible and invisible to the god who made little green apples."
Dr. Fleming,
You stole T.S. Eliot's line about "not with a bang but a whimper" and put it to popular song instead of verse. But even so (and I know you really didn't) here is another one from Eliot that still sings and could be about our modern Christmas:
"The wilderness is cracked and browned
But through the water pale and thin
Still shine the unoffending feet
And there above the painter set 15
The Father and the Paraclete."
The other day I was at the Amtrak station in Mount Vernon, Washington--Glenn Beck's home town, it so happens. There was a sign saying the station would be closed on "Christmas Day." I took umbrage and rather irritadedly said to the lady behind the window, "Excuse me, but it's impious to say 'Christmas Day.' The notice should just say the station is closed on Christmas"--no demeaning "day." I was gratified when she said "I agree with you." I hope she still has her job.
"Jeemenetti, as we used to say in high school, life here in these United States gets complicated."
I always thought it was Jiminy as in Jiminy Cricket. Sometimes people would add the Cricket for emphasis. Another complication, I guess.
On Jeemenetti (variously spelled), it is a rural Southern euphemism for the name of Our Lord, and only much later confused with the Disney character, though Jiminy is old.
Mr. Zaretske: I don't want to start an argument over something fairly trivial, but I was under the impression (to the extent that I had ever thought about the issue before) that "Christmas Day" was a way of distinguishing the single feast day from the entire season lasting through January 6 or February 2. Of course, those who run the train station have probably never heard of Epiphany or Candlemas, but I never heard the claim that "Christmas Day" was irreverent or impious before.
Happy Advent everybody!
Pious Christians should properly be in a state of self-denial by shunning meat, dairy, and alcoholic beverages. Now that's a challenge!
"I heard the bells on Christmas day," goes a 19th century carol based on a Longfellow poem, though he was an apparently sincere Unitarian. But then there is:
The Virgin Mary and Christ were there,
On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day;
The Virgin Mary and Christ were there,
On Christmas Day in the morning.
John Evelyn in the 17th century uses the phrase....I think Mr. Kabala has it exactly right.
Something significant about Christmas Day.
1) The baptism of Clovis
2) St Augustine baptized ten thousand at York to begin the conversion of merry England on Christmas Day.
3) Charlemagne was crowned emperor on Christmas Day
4) In a happier age the civil law assisted with the celebration of Christmas by enacting that no creditor could demand any type of payment from a debtor during the whole week of Christmas.(My favorite Southern, historian,Professor Clyde Wilson, has suggested this is perhaps why so many Republicans hate Christmas and will do next to nothing to defend its cultural expression.)
5) But only time will tell how the Most High will desire to use Christmas in the future for His and his Son's praise and glory, but perhaps in the near future it will be a glorious day here in America
for some new Christian martyrs who are caught drinking and wishing their neighbors good cheer on the holy night of all the year.
#7&10--Maybe its in the context. A bureacratic circular referring to "Christmas day" seems annoyingly, even insultingly, tone-deaf to me. Moreover, isn't the "mas" supposed to mean something like "day"? We don't say "Christ day," which I would NOT think is impious. And the word "impious" is hyperbole on my part, of course--no one can persuade the writers at this website that anything is wrong with hyperbole, which is gratifying and, in its own way, instructive. I compliment Dr. Fleming, in all sincerity, when I say he is a master of hyperbole.)
Sorry--no smiley face intended. I deleted the opening parenthesis of the last sentence but failed to delete the closing parenthesis. It would be tendentious to explain this, but Dr. fleming hates smiley faces, and I myself would never use one.
Another mistake--make that an upper-case "F."
The folks at VDare are a mixed bag, some Christians, some (too many) non-believers, a few Jews, etc.. They bill themselves as a non-partisan, non-sectarian coalition of those who think our immigration policies stink. Plenty of delightful Christmas customs have no strictly biblical or theological justification (and were therefore banned by the Protestant Ebenezer Scrooges of past times). Those who are offended by "Merry Christmas" or creches or carols need to find someplace else to dwell, the quicker the better.
Atheist Trotskyist Christopher Hitchens recently speculated that the First Amendment might ban the Christmas tree in the White House because the house is owned by the government. So you know what's next.
Because the government-run Fannie and Freddie mortgage companies own most of the mortgages in America, the government could ban all religious symbols from most homes.
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia "The word for Christmas in late Old English is Cristes Maesse, the Mass of Christ, first found in 1038, and Cristes-messe, in 1131."
Christmas - or rather the Christmas season, now known as the 'holiday season' is now just a time when we eat, exchange cheap Chinese junk, and get tortured by silly songs about the holidays.
Does anybody else react to all this with a disdain, sort of like a 'harrumph'? I can take 'Winter Wonderland' or chestnuts on the fire, not that anybody has chestnuts anymore, but 'Jingle Bell Rock' just irks me to no end, as do just about any other such songs of the past fourty years.
What is at the heart of this disdain? It's not just the commercialism, or the emptiness and often gaudiness or tastelessness of it, it's the fact that everybody is having a 'holiday season' for no good reason.
Being often dense, it took me several years to realise this. There is no meaning to the 'holiday season'.
Of course that's because Christ is missing from it, therefore why even have it at all?
Mr. Wisniewski @ 17 and to those discussing "Christmas Day."
The German word "Weihnachten" is plural in form but used in the singular today. The word is a shortened form for "an den heiligen Nächten" (On the holy nights.) The modern word "Weihnachten" first makes an appearance in the 12th century as "wîhennahten." The traditions associated with it are, of course, much older. While it is sometimes used for the entire period from the first Sunday of Advent to Epiphany, it is usually applied to Christmas Eve, an intimate time, at least traditionally, for the nuclear German family, and the days that follow through Epiphany or Dreikönigstag. The 25th of December is der erste Weihnachtstag (first Christmas Day) and the 26th of December is der zweite Weihnachtstag (second Christmas Day). Traditionally, although less and less, the first day was spent at one set of grandparents and the second at the other. (St. Nikolaus comes on 6 December, a much saner tradition than that of Santa.)
This year, in our familial experiences, Christmas has been focused on our Lord and His Incarnation. Baptist churches do not always celebrate Advent, but our congregation does and has for some time. My Sunday class had a Christmas party during which we read the Christmas story - selections from the Old Testament, from Matthew and from Luke - and sang traditional Christmas hymns. Our congregation also had the "hanging of the green" during each phase of which our Lord and His Incarnation were celebrated in song and with Scripture. Each year, the Arts Council of Grant Parish (the carpetbag parish in which I was reared) has a harp and violin celebration. The venue is Colfax (It used to be Calhoun's Landing on the Red River until it was re-named for Mr. Colfax, Mr. Grant's Vice-President: carpetbaggers again!) in the very simple but beautiful historical Baptist Church. My now ninety-three-year-old mother has attended for the last twelve years. Hymns and carols such as "Il est né," "Es ist ein Ros entsprungen," and "Ave Maria" were played. Last night, the school at which I am the headmaster, had a Christmas play focused on the Advent of Christ. The script was originally written by a teacher who died several years ago. The music and the lyrics were written by a colleague. The colleague directed the play in honor of her friend who had written the script and, of course, in celebration of our Lord's birth. It involved our pre-school through 6th grade telling the story of our Lord's Advent in action, dialogue and song. Ahead in the celebration of our Lord's birth are a private family communion at our church, a Christmas-Eve candlelight service at 6:00 p.m. in the Southern Methodist Church just down the road. (Yes, there are still Southern Methodist Church, not "united" and all!), a midnight mass at the Christ the King Catholic Church in Bossier City on invitation of a friend.
December 25 we will be with extended family.
The only "pagan" Christmas celebration I participated in was the Nachitoches Christmas Parade (City of Lights as in "Steal Magnolias"). The Louisiana Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, of which I am a member, marched in and floated through (two floats -one with a cannon) that parade, witnessed by about 80,000 people. We had about 20 rifles which were fired about every 100 yards and some bayonet charges and a colorful assortment of flags. One of our floats played traditional Christmas hymns, and we did pray, as a division, to our Lord in celebration of His birthday before we marched. (A certain group attempts from year to year to get us barred from the procession; however, Providence has maintained us.)
The only outside decoration which I put up is one which I designed and had made to my specifications: a steal Christmas tree which has rings at the end of its "limbs" to accommodate glass votive candle holders and the candles which go in them. I put the tree out by the road, about 100 yards from the house, and light the candles every evening. At night, the candles outline the shape of a tree. So far, no one has stolen it. About three years ago, a rain came in the night and put out all but three candles: the one at the very top and two on upper opposing limbs (the tree is quite symmetrical). It looked like a cross. That may have been a miracle, inviting a look from the manger to the cross; or it could have invited federal agents to arrest me for having a "burning cross" on my lawn. My tree will go up on Christmas Eve and burn through Epiphany. If y'all are in the area, come by.
During the Thirty Years War, Middle Europe (the German states) were devastated by plunder and destruction. Yet, in that war, generally so destructive, there were villages and even entire regions untouched by it. So, based on my experience this year, even as the war on Christmas rages, there are nooks and crannies in our climes which that war has not yet found and touched. We are grateful to our Lord for this mercy and this grace. As my old pastor, Bro. Mose used to tell us, "Mercy is not getting what you deserve: God's wrath; and grace is getting what you do not deserve: God's love made possible by the redemptive work of Christ, our Lord."
Merry Christmas
Dickens apparently felt it necessary at the time to make at least a passing allusion to Christ:
"He [Tiny Tim] told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day who made lame beggars walk and blind men see. "
Bob Cratchit - A Christmas Carol
Do you still listen to the Velvet Underground, Dr. Fleming?
Amen, Doc Peters (#19). Thank you for the wonderful story, and enlightening message.
Folks, as long as there are Christians there will be Christmas. And it will be as good or as bad as what we make of it. Was there ever an ideal Christmas that was widely celebrated anywhere in modern times? I heard that in New England it was outlawed all together, until as late as the early 1800's, and in Boston kids were forced to go to school on 12/25 as late as 1870. Compared to that nightmare we have it pretty good.
If you are weary of commercialization, avoid the
TV; don't go shopping; sing some good old-fashioned carols like
We Three Kings, Away In A Manger, O Holy Night, O Come O Come Emmanuel, and other wonderful gems. Or if you don't want to sing, listen to a CD like "Ancient Noels" (by Maggie Sansone/Ensemble
Galilei) which is all instrumental. Or for a great choral collection, "Mid Earth Rejoices" by Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chant Choir.
Christ is still there in Christmas as He always was and always will be. It's up to us to keep that tradition going. Don't waste energy wishing for cooperation from Uncle Sam and other institutions. It will not happen. Let them have their gloomy solstice, or their Godless generic "holiday." The rest of us should have a Merry Christmas!
Mr. Tenzio @ 20:
Yes, and that scene is included in all the dramatizations of Dickens' novella I have seen. In addition, Dickens quotes from "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentelmen," has a scene where the Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge people around Britain observing Christmas including, if memory serves, both sailors and miners singing carols, and has Scrooge go to church on Christmas morning.
"We could eliminate all the Christmas music ever written, outlaw Christmas trees and figgie pudding, carry out Scrooge’s wish: “If I could work my will any idiot who goes around with a Merry Christmas on his lips would be cooked with his own turkey and buried with a stake of holly through his heart,” and it would not matter that much to those who keep Christ in their heart all year long."
Is Dr. Fleming a Roman Catholic or a Jehovah's Witness? This is written from a hyper-Protestant (not that there's anything wrong with that) and anti-Pagan (ditto) worldview. One more step in the evolution of Flemingism, I guess.
For some strange reason my own website devoured this morning's response. Going in reverse order, I don't understand Mr. Gast's question. Even in the narrow context of the paragraph, to say nothing of the whole piece or of all I have written in defense of incorporating pre-Christian elements into Christianity, it is impossible to conclude as he (and in the piece we are about to post) and Tom Piatak do, that I oppose the introduction of secular or pre-Christian elements into the celebration of Christmas. It should be clear even to a very casual reader that I have said, quite simply, that the trimmings and even the tree are not essential to Christmas, which is a mass celebrating the Incarnation. I should think this is not a point worth discussing, much less arguing about.
It is hilarious to use film versions of Dickens as evidence of his Christian spirit. I shall make this point again, but Dickens was not a Christian. He makes not a single reference to "Jesus" or "Christ" or "Mary" in A Christmas Carol. The references to God are conversational oaths, as "God bless you or "God save me," which no novelist could avoid using if he wished to describe the social life of England in the first half of the 19th century. (Yes, first half. Dickens typically describes the world of his childhood even when he pretends he is making a contemporary reference, hence his complaints against social problems that had already been more or less solved.). The same is true of his reference to people going to Church. As Dickens' daughter told Chesterton, when she read his biography, her father was a very bad man, an it is worse than a waste of time to pretend he was anything but what he was. His revolting sentimentality has the flavor of an abcessed tooth. It is sweet but sickening and if left untreated, it may kill you.
Let me assure the perceptive Mr. Toddard that I no longer even own Velvet Underground records--at least i don't think I do, not because I threw them away but because my children ripped me off. I did hear them play an early and decadent version of "Sweet Jane" several times in San Francisco. What Reed did with his polished version approaches brilliance.
I am grateful to Robert Peters, as I always am, for his beautiful comment.
That we even have to discuss the "status" of Christmas speaks to the degraded state of our culture. A truly Christian nation would not tolerate much of what passes for our cultural life.
For the past few years I have always said to anyone wishing me Happy Holidays , "Gee, what holidays are you referring to?" It provokes some interesting responses, but the most common one is a sheepish admission that they mean Christmas to which I respond, "Merry Christmas to you, too." (Which is also my wish to all here at the Chronicles site, one of the few reamining outposts of sanity we have left)
My ability to spell and my ability to type are inversely proportional; I mneat of course "remaining" outposts!
I tend to believe that most of what we view as American Christmas traditions and customs (as well as all the various secular trappings that go along with it) are much like miracles - beautiful reminders that Christ is present in our world and in our hearts - but not a necessary component of our faith.
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Wise piece.
As a convert, I am grateful for the 40-day pre-Nativity fast we Orthodox try to keep.
It limits, a bit, the materialist and faux-nostalgic indulgence of the larger society. Even when we don't keep it perfectly, it reminds us how far we have to go and how unfit, but for the grace of God, we are for the journey.
Allen Wilson says:
"Does anybody else react to all this with a disdain, sort of like a ‘harrumph’? I can take ‘Winter Wonderland’ or chestnuts on the fire, not that anybody has chestnuts anymore, but ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ just irks me to no end, as do just about any other such songs of the past fourty years."
'Jingle Bell Rock', while lousy, is worlds better than the abomination that is 'Santa Baby'. And chestnuts nothing; has anyone ever rode on, or even seen, an actual sleigh with any number of horses? I might have seen a decorative one in the mall, but that's as far as that goes.
Although I can get to be a bit of a humbug about Christmas these days, I try to limit it and just enjoy it for what it's worth. As a would-be Catholic convert, this is my first exposure to the Advent season, and that gives the season a religious overtone that is appreciated by me. Being a young'un (born in 82), I don't have any experience of Christmas in the 'golden age' of the 50s, so I don't even have a perspective on what has been lost in the public celebration.
@16 John Seiler. Didn't Saint Nicholaus punch out Arius at the Nicean council? I wonder if we could get Santa to punch out Hitchens and Dawkins. Kris Kringle has a vicious right hook.
@25
I don't know whether Dickens was a Christian or not. But what I quoted in #20 is not from a movie; it is right there about a third of the way into Stave Three of A Christmas Carol during the visit of the second spirit. I am also aware that Dickens wrote "The Life of Our Lord" in 1849 for his children. It was not meant for public consumption and wasn't published until the 1930s.
Mr. Terenzio, I was referring to my very good friend Tom Piatak's response. I have read A Christmas Carol several times, heard it read by my father more than once, listened as a child countless times to a recorded version with Basil Rathbon, seen at least two film versions and countless sitcom ripoffs. I have even gone to the trouble of searching an etext for key words like "Jesus" (0), "Christ" (0), lord (0, except in social sense), God (only in expessions like "God bless you.). I had intended to make an extended comment on this but the ugly truth is that Dickens was so disaffected from Christianity that he had to invent his own mythology--the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future-- rather than refer to the Christian story at all. Dickens, like most modern writers and intellectuals (by modern, say, since 1750) was not a Christian, and it is a serious mistake to pretend he was or turn to him for "the spirit of Christmas." Bah, Humbug, I say again.
Here's a more amusing question. What are your votes for the best and worst pop-culture contributions to Christmas? There's so much from which to choose. To get things started, I might suggest "Have yourself a merry little Christmas" as among the most disgusting.
"I might suggest “Have yourself a merry little Christmas” as among the most disgusting."
Dr. Fleming, do you mean because of the 'Fates' reference, or because of the overall sentiment?
I have always been partial to Vince Guaraldi's Christmas album, and have always loved Carol Of The Bells, which to me sounds haunting and strange (although perhaps that's not "pop"). And Burl Ives' Christmas Child (really that whole album, however corny, has a place in my heart).
Worst, I think, is any of those wretched "Christmas" songs made after the 60's, where social-justice liberal messages are crammed into the song. The Kinks did one ("Father Christmas"?), Stevie Wonder did another (though I do like his rendering of the more "traditional" Christmas songs). The message is usually something like "While you're having a merry Christmas, poor people are suffering in misery because we have not enacted enough liberal policies".
Is Vince Guraldi's Christmas album the music he wrote for Charley Brown's Christmas or something else. I am shocked to hear that the Kinks, certainly one of the very best bands of the 60's, committed this outrage. In a related vein, there is an absolutely putrid Simon and Garfunkel songs (I realize I have not narrowed the field) in which they play Silent Night but the music is drowned out by the Seven O'clock News and man's inhumanity to man.
"What are your votes for the best and worst pop-culture contributions to Christmas? "
My children have grown up listening to John Lennon's Happy Christmas(War Is Over)in the public square as they tag along with their parents in the shops and malls.
An excellent suggestion, Dr. Fleming. As far as secular American Christmas songs, I have always liked "The Christmas Song," especially as sung by Nat King Cole, and "Silver Bells," especially the Bing Crosby/Carol Richards version. I despise and abominate "Jingle Bell Rock."
I have always been fond of "The Little Drummer Boy," though it is undeniably sentimental. The album on which that song first appeared, by the Harry Simeone chorale, is quite good, as are the recordings of some of the other choral groups of that era, such as Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians. The overwhelming focus of those albums is on religious Christmas music.
The same is sometimes even true of records made by pop stars. I finally got around to buying the Nat King Cole Christmas album, which features mostly religious carols, including a very fine "O Holy Night." The Andy Williams album I am fond of is not his Christmas album from the '60s, which does feature mostly secular Christmas songs, but a later album from the '70s, which features only one non-religious song and has Williams singing both the Schubert and Bach/Gounod "Ave Marias." Even religious songs not generally associated with Christmas showed up on those albums. Bing Crosby's Christmas album undountedly brought "Faith of Our Fathers" into more American homes than any other, and the first time I heard "Panis Angelicus" was on a 1960s Robert Goulet Christmas album.
My favorite secular song is A Christmas Carol by Tom Lehrer which thoroughly skewers the orgy of drinking, eating and spending that the holiday has become. Worst has to be the new Neil Diamond song, the commercials for which are currently plaguing the airwaves. What the Inferno is A Cherry Cherry Christmas?
A follow up. The finest mainstream American Christmas recording is, I think, Robert Shaw's "The Many Moods of Christmas," which RCA expanded as a CD to a "Festival of Carols," which includes all the carol medleys Shaw arranged for the album plus a number of additional individual carols, all of which are excellent. The "Festival of Carols" CD is readily available and I would highly recommend it to everyone.
As bad if not worse than the secular stuff already referred to is the so-called "Christian" praise music in general and in particular, to remain on topic, those versions thereof which claim to be Christmas music, music with a pop or rock rhythm and sung in a Michael-Jacksonesque voice. Thus I conclude that Satan fights on both sides in the War on Christmas.
One of my many personal failings is a loathing of recorded Christmas carols, especially when the performance is by a great ensemble such as Robert Shaw's. For me, carols are something to sing at home, in school, at parties, and at church. I'd rather listen to Gene Autry sing Rudolf than hear the Mormon Tabernacle Chorus belting out one my favorites, "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," though I would feel entirely different about a great church choir performing in church. Public Radio stations, in this most wonderful time of the year, become unbearable. Anti-Christian down to the janitor, these stations feel it their duty to load up on Christmas music, some of it rather obscure, but always with the smarmy hypocrisy we use toward children when we promise them that if they go to bed early, Santa will be sure to arrive.
As for Bing Bang Crosby, as Sean O'Casey calls him in a play, he was a revolting human being and a talentless pop singer with the worst of taste. My father, who loathed all pop music, even the best kind, told me that Crosby used to hustle Joe Louis at golf. Bing would deliberately lose the first hole or two then ask poor Joe if he didn't want to make a few dollars. What kind of creature would hustle Joe Louis? As revolting as Crosby's personal behavior, his singing was lower than his morals. Give me Sinatra any time, a cheap Mafia hood but the man could sing. I still cannot stand Sinatra's Christmas Album. Nat King Cole? Absolutely. You have inspired me to go to ITunes and get an album.
Yesterday, on a whim, I got a compilation of Buck Owens. I listened and ridiculed Buck when I was in college, but what a band he had. Without Buck, there would have been no Merle. Merle played in the band briefly and apparently suggested their name, The Buckaroos. Give me pop music without the sanctimony. I have never heard his album Christmas with Buck Owens and His Buckaroos, but I note with pleasure that all the songs are pop.
"Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" true claim to fame is it's use as a background to Luca Brasi donning his bullet-proof vest and checking his revolver prior to going after Salozzo (and subsequently getting murdered himself) in "The Godfather;" the ironies abound.
As for other Christmas tunes, a DJ informed his audience the other day that the most requested "song" during his show was the dogs barking Jingle Bells. I'm sure Herodotus would want to include that piece of cultural achievement in any history he'd write about America.
"Is Vince Guraldi’s Christmas album the music he wrote for Charley Brown’s Christmas"
Yes it is, Dr. Fleming. I don't know if you enjoy that sort of thing, but if you haven't given it a try (and enjoy cool piano jazz at all) don't let the fact that it was used as a soundtrack (to a children's special) stop you. I find it very playful, wistful and moving. Then again, I like Vince Guaraldi in general. It might not be your thing.
I had a friend in college who was a fan and I enjoyed listening to it. Lately, I have had reawakened an affection for all the jazz I liked back in the 60's, Oscar Peterson (when he is good, he is very very good, etc.), Stan Getz, Dave Brubeck, and a lot of Elle Fitzgerald. Her "songbooks" (Gershwin, Porter, etc.) are my favorite listening at what used to be cocktail time. I had forgotten the wonderful Godfather scene, Mr. Colin. Thanks for reminding me.
I love Brubeck and Gets, absolutely. I will have to look into Oscar Peterson. Thanks.
#26 (Which is also my wish to all...) We find over the years
that wishing is the child's early word, the Lord understands,
and for the adult's use' there is that same understanding. As an
adult, the word yearning gives what Paul may have meant. Having
had milk, we go on to eating meat. Merry Christmas to all.
Good stuff
John McCutcheon's "Christmas in the Trenches" -- American Folk saves a myth; $1 to download.
tee-vee & song
Davey and Goliath- Christmas Lost and Found
A Christmas Together- John Denver and the Muppets
Bad Stuff
"Feed the World"/ collection of 80s Brit Pop.
An edit to #46. As a person who has been on a long walk with
words and English and literature there was a need to edit. Replace the word mature for adult that St. Paul exhorted that followers of Christ Jesus' should strive for in their life.
Dr. Fleming this essay and Mr. Piatak's War Worth Winning are
very much appreciated.
The best pop-culture contributions are Gene Autry and the grandfatherly Burl Ives. Ives couldn't sing that well, but I love his stuff (not just his Christmas music).
The worst are the contemporary, sexualized songs. The gal that sings "Santa baby" sounds like she needs some penecilin in her stocking. And I particuarly loathe George Michael's "Last Christmas." Someone who was caught in a bathroom with another boy shouldn't be singing Christmas songs.
I dont mind that Eagles song 'Christmas Without You' too bad, probably because it's not really a Christmas song at all. Like Mr Piatak, I like 'Silver Bells', and The Little Drummer Boy', though the sentimentalism of both irritates and gets to me after a while. I like Drummer Boy in the German version but that's rare and hard to find. The advantage of the German version is that if you dont understand the language very well, you can enjoy the song while being oblivious to the sentimentalism.
I second Dr Fleming's distaste for recorded Christmas carols.
'White Christmas', while not the worst of them, just seems to drag on for infinity until I either fall asleep or have to check into a nuthouse so they can wipe the foam from my mouth and either give me therapy or drugs to numb the mental anguish.
As for 'Santa Baby', I believe I heard the beginning of this song and just changed the station right then. Then there is that one about the Redneck Reindeer.....aaarrrgggghhh!!!!!!! Almost as stomach turning as having to hear 'Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer' for the 10,000th time in roughly twenty five years. Perhaps that is the worst one?