Christmas, Music, Garrison,

[jesse_the_k]

Full disclosure: we are 100% bah humbug at our house. I'm culturally Jewish and personally athiest. MyGuy was double-dipped Baptized and left organized religion with junior high. Christmas means Asian food and avoiding family members. No presents, no singing, no hits, no runs, no errors.

When we started listening to A Prairie Home Companion in 1977, it was cool and retro. Unfortunately Garrison Keillor decided around a decade ago that he could really sing, and now it's just annoying.

Even worse was his column this week asking the non-Christians to stay away from Christmas. In particular, why are these annoying Jews writing those annoyingly secular holiday tunes (like White Christmas and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer).

That bastion of Hebraic effete East-coast elitism, the NYTimes, followed up with Michael Feinstein's story of complaints because his Christmas program included too many Jewish songs.

Nicely matched, both linked at this TIME blog from James Poniewozik's Christmas is Too Jewish? Oy Vey.

But the real reason to follow the link is the fabulous Saturday Night Live animation, where the genuine Darleen Love sings "Christmas Time for the Jews" in all her Motown glory.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Yeah, when I was a kid I knew about Shabbos Goyim but wondered why there wasn't a reciprical term for what you describe. (If there is I'm sure you can school me!)

[redbird]

If there is a single term, nobody told me. But I grew up knowing that every Jew in the New York Police Department worked Christmas, and in return none of them had to work Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur.