Is Christmas Our "Wokest" Holiday?

Two Leftish Holiday Songs for Marxists, RINOs and Other Vermin*

Most of us like to think of Christmas as the season of peace and goodwill — a time when even Republicans and Christian nationalists trade beautiful cards to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Sadly, a good many of them seem to forget the lessons Jesus taught after he was born, which tracks their approach to so many kids being born today. I suppose that's understandable. After all, the "love they neighbor" message that Jesus promoted tends to clash with holiday photos of the entire family waving assault rifles in front of a Christmas tree.

When you stop to think about it, Christmas has always been one of our "wokest" holidays. Jesse Watters and the other bigots at Fox News can scream all they want about blasphemous depictions of Santa as a black man in a wheelchair or nutcrackers with rainbow flag hats, but I'd wager the vast majority of holiday songs are more about such treasured values as fellowship, generosity and enjoying one another's company than about bashing people based on race, ethnicity or sexual orientation. With that in mind, allow me to share just a couple of "woke" holiday tunes that I've run across today and happen to enjoy.

"This Year My Wishlist Only Says Peace," by theCatherines

First up is a song by the German "pop jangle" band theCatherines, a sweet and timely holiday tune called "This Year My Wishlist Only Says Peace." It's got a message that's always appropriate and particularly relevant this year. As one reviewer notes,

The track is an indie pop gem with jangling sensibilities and sleigh bells aplenty. More importantly, at a time of cheer and joy, this German ensemble reminds us that there are people less fortunate than us. Once again, theCatherines have created a glistening pop song with a deep and meaningful message.

Learn More About theCatherines and Hear More of Their Music

"Santa, Stay Home," by U.S. Girls, featuring Rich Morel

This one's actually a couple of years old and it's kind of a frontal attack on much of what this blog works to celebrate, but proposing that Christmas be eliminated due to its huge carbon footprint is going to have the gang at Fox News simultaneously clutching their pearls and screaming for the smelling salts. Formed in 2007, U.S. Girls is a Toronto-based, one-woman project by Meghan Remy. I don't necessarily endorse everything this song's proposing, but she raises some valid points, and it's kind of fun to try to "own the MAGAs" for a change.

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Check Out U.S. Girls on YouTube

 

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*Hard as it is to believe, one of our former presidents recently echoed Adolph Hitler and several other dictators by publicly referring to his political enemies as "vermin" and threatening to "root them out" if returned to office. Care to guess which former president it was? 

Fox News Is At It Again

 

One holiday tradition I don't respect is the annual promotion by Fox News of the so-called "war against Christmas." According to Fox, Democrats are trying to destroy Christmas by preventing people from celebrating or even acknowledging the holiday. As evidence, they cite the widespread use of the greeting "Happy Holidays," which they see as disparaging Christmas. They've repeatedly promoted Donald Trump's nonsensical thoughts on this topic, including Trump's repeated and thoroughly debunked assertions that Barack Obama never once wished anyone a "Merry Christmas" while he was president. Of course, there are thousands of videos of President Obama not only using the phrase but openly celebrating Christmas in church and elsewhere. 

This week, Fox host Jesse Watters, a preposterous buffoon whose sole purpose at the network appears to be terrifying his elderly viewer base with fabricated and preposterous claims, launched his annual holiday meltdown by decrying a couple of cheap decorations now on sale at Target. The first is a nutcracker doll with a rainbow flag. The second is an ornament depicting Santa as a black man in a wheelchair. To hear Watters' sneering account, such toys threaten our very existence as a nation. No need to worry about Donald Trump's 91 indictments, attempts at witness tampering or Nazi threats, the real danger we face is a plastic toy model of a disabled black Santa.

The principal focus of this blog is holiday music, and I try to avoid politics for the most part. But we're facing a vitally important choice over the next 12 months and there are powerful forces seeking to install a fascist dictatorship in the United States and they'll stop at nothing to win. They've managed to win the support of millions of our fellow citizens by promoting fear and chaos through ridiculous lies like the alleged war on Christmas. Please take the time to educate yourselves about what's really going on!

Santa Claus Is a Black Man? Not So Fast, Says Fox's Megyn Kelly

While I try to ignore as much of the nonsense media as possible these days, it's impossible to avoid it altogether and sometimes I'm left scratching my head about some ridiculous story they're pushing to sell us more hamburgers and flat screen TVs. The latest viral flap is different, however, because it concerns a vitally important issue that this blog was among the first to address. The issue? Is Santa Claus black or white? Yes, forget about health care, drone strikes and the federal budget, we're discussing Santa's race this week. I'm pleased to say that this blog, unlike its competitors, has already taken a firm and unambiguous stand on the issue (PRESS HERE). Other outlets are now scrambling to catch up.

Their coverage of the issue started one week ago today when Newsday ran a column by Aisha Harris, an African-American woman, in which she described the confusion she felt as a child seeing conflicting depictions of Santa Claus. At home and within the black community, Harris wrote, Santa was pictured for the most part as black. On TV, in the stores and at school, however, he was white.

I remember feeling slightly ashamed that our black Santa wasn't the "real thing." Because when you're a kid and you're inundated with the imagery of a pale seasonal visitor - and you notice that even some black families decorate their houses with white Santas - you're likely to accept the consensus view[.]

Harris went on to suggest that perhaps we might consider recasting Santa as someone or something more universally accessible – a penguin perhaps? Is that even possible? "Of course," says Harris. "[S]ince we created Santa, we can certainly change him however we like, and we have. Many times over." Fair enough.

But the story took a sharp turn into the fast lane of crazy the following day when Fox TV personality Megyn Kelly got into the act. Kelly not only took issue with Harris's column, which, after all, was agnostic on the ultimate question of Santa's race, but boldly declared that no matter what else children may have been told, Santa Claus is white. Period. So, too, was Jesus. Exclamation Point! Here's the tape:



Leave it to Fox to eliminate all of those messy historical uncertainties from the picture. Don't let any of those pointy-headed liberal professor-types confuse you, Kelly decreed. Santa is white. He's always been white. Jesus, too. It's simple, or as Archie Bunker might say, "case closed." Well, to be factually accurate, there isn't all that much about either Santa or Jesus that's demonstrably clear from our vantage point. There are plenty of open questions, many of which may never be resolved. Santa, of course, is a mythical figure loosely based on St. Nicholas, a Christian bishop from an area that is now part of Turkey. Jesus was born a Galilean Jew. As a result, it's likely neither of these two men would appear to be white by contemporary standards. There is certainly no clear or simple answer to longstanding questions about their race.

As so often happens, it took Jon Stewart, anchorman for a comedy news program called The Daily Show, to bring this topic back down to Earth:

(Hey, what's with Gretchen Carlson? Is it me or does she look completely unhinged in the Daily Show video, above.) Count on us to keep you up to date on any significant new developments in this story. Until then, from where we're seated, PRESS HERE.

Read some Children's Letters to Megyn Kelly

Watch Megyn Kelly's Response to the "Santa is White" Controversy

Watch Jon Stewart's Response to Megyn Kelly's Response

Read "How to Explain Megyn Kelly's Fear of a Black Santa"

Check Out Comedy Central's "War on Christmas" Advent Calendar