However, now that the day dedicated to giving thanks is over and out of the way, at least we have the release of holiday music to play a constant soundtrack for us in the growing mania.
My particular favorite is "Christmas List" by Simple Plan. This song is great. It's upbeat and (more importantly) it's culturally honest. I respect that.
I'm not sure if the song is satirical or serious, but either way I like it. (Although I like to think it's the former over the latter.) It's also really fun to sing.
A few songs after hearing "Christmas List" play, "I Believe", sung by Kermit the Frog and Tiffany Thornton started playing. (Thank you, Radio Disney, I guess I caught the premier release of the duet. The music video comes out December 8th.) My speakers are basically junk so musical clarity wasn't exactly something I was given, but I was caught by the possibility of some theological hunger that I heard in the lyrics:
What makes a miracle?
What makes a Christmas dream come true?
How can a man in red change the world I thought I knew?
How can there be miracles if hearts are filled with doubt?
It's time to leave the doubt behind and find out what life's about.
I believe in a wondrous place they call the imagination.
I believe in a childhood world of hope and celebration.
I believe in the miracle of love.
Because
Oh yes, I believe in Santa Clause.
At this point, I turned off the radio. The song continues in the usage of religious terms to describe a magical, imaginative god in a red suit. I guess we prefer him to the real thing, because we can control him.
Here's a sample of the song. Look for the duet (which has more developed lyrics) in about a week. If you'd like to listen to the song before then, you can YouTube "Tiffany Thornton 'I Believe'" for some really poor quality videos.
A few years ago, I stumbled across a lovely little ditty called, "All I Want for Christmas is to Get it Crunk," by Dirty Boyz. With a title like that, I don't think I need to go into the lyrics to explain what the hip-hop song is about or to describe the moral caliber sung about. However, the song caught my attention not only because it was a direct slap in the face to what every Hallmark Christmas card tried to paint the holiday season as and not just because it was the first song that seemed to honestly confess consumerism as the driving motivator behind "celebrating." To me, the song is one of those that highlights the purpose of the season in that it absolutely points to the need for a savior (while Christmas answers the need - celebrating that the Savior came to the earth). Don't get me wrong - I don't recommend that we go out and start listening to trashy "Christmas" music that is ridden with sex, consumerism, and narcissism...but this song in particular caught my attention.
But maybe this is the result we get when we look for Santa to save us. We reject believing in the love and the gift of Christ, who paid for our sins with His death on the cross. Instead, we "believe" in a man in a red suit, who gives us goodies according to if we are good enough or not.
To clarify, I'm not anti-Santa Clause. I absolutely love the Christmas season. I just think that when we see the selfish, frantic, panicked, guilt-ridden symptoms of a society that has chosen "Santa Clause" to be god (the reason for the season), then the obvious cure is to dump the old god and perhaps return to the old stand-by. Personally, a Christmas inspired by God and producing a time of wonder, thankfulness, and meditation on what Love really is appeals to me a lot more. Sorry, Santa Baby, but you just ain't cuttin' it.
And now I need to go to the mall...
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