I like some of the parodies of Christmas songs, like Alan Sherman’s “Twelve Days of Christmas,” and the barking dogs version of “Jingle Bells,” which I can imagine distinctly despite the fact I haven’t heard it in 40 years. It was made with tape manipulations, I think, since it predated sampling instruments by a few decades.
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I’ve been in India on the eve of Diwali. It is way more inclusive, or at least Mumbai was about it. There’s a pluarality about it that Christmas lacks.
ETA: I was in India for Ganeshpathi as well one year. They build temporary temples, and a business associate took me into one that was Halloween themed. You walked through a giant vampire’s mouth to get in. Inside was more what you’d expect from a traditional Hindu temple.
That’s as close as I can get to explaining the plurality thing.
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No goddamned shit. Why does the Satanic Church of American Christianity get to own the darkest days of the year? They haven’t gotten away with this American Christmas crap for more than a half-dozen generations. It has to stop, especially since we’re going to have to get ready to get reamed, for the next several generations, by rich-Chinese-traditional-Confucian holidays which reinforce consumerism and hierarchy in adorable new ways to go with the new imperial order, or else, just like the old Hays Code and Baby It’s Cold Outside.
Let’s not bow to a dead, empty ritual of Imperial Satanic Christmas. Let’s enjoy ourselves while we can before the next batch of rich scumbags (maybe they’re Swedish or Nigerian or (actual) Brahmins) decides they can’t just look at the iron boots any more, they want to strap them on.
What I’m saying is, fuck traditional Christmas. It’s not even traditional. While it dies, let’s enjoy the things that it isn’t.
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Yet not at all surprising in the least, honestly.
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Christmas carols from Britain that are based on Pagan imagery (holly, ivy, cherry trees) have quite a lot of history and complexity to them BECAUSE they’re not just Christmas carols, if you see what I’m saying as you point out later in your post, which I’ve now read to the end.
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My parents had a Christmas record full of that deck. One of the songs was about a snowman who got lonely whenever the kids playing with him had to go inside, so he wanted to go inside with them. I refuse to believe that the song is about anything else other than an actively suicidal snowman. Needless to say, I have never heard that song in any other context.
But if we did that, nobody would buy anything! /s
We’d also not hear any of the usual stuff. The Christmas music we usually hear is commercial, not religious. So, taking the commercialism out of Christmas would effectively kill Christmas music.
Also, anyone else notice that the vast majority of the usual Christmas music is by and/or for Baby Boomers? Are they the only ones who enjoy Christmas? Is this yet another thing they’ve sucked all the enjoyment out of, just like drugs and sex?
I always interpreted it as “you don’t even have half a penny to your name? Welp, you’re fucked.”
…And A Japanese Transistor Radio!
I haven’t heard that one in about 20 years, but it’s still good. It’s always good.
I’ve never been to India, but I love diwali.
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I like this one too:
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Zooming animation warning…
So win-win? I’m sure @gadgetgirl would agree.
“Of the top 30 most performed Christmas songs in 2015, 13 (43%) were written in the 1930s or 1940s and 12 (40%) were written in the 1950s and 1960s; only five (17%) were written from the 1970s on.”
That’s right. We boomers are so determined to destroy all your joy that, not content with writing tacky Xmas songs before we were out of diapers, we actually traveled back in time to write some of the most annoying and persistent ones. (Actually the ones I despised as a young boomling, but if it crushes your spirit, it was all worth it.) 
When you are old, and the malls are filled with the sound of Britney Spears’ My Only Wish (This Year) and Coldplay’s Christmas Lights you will have your chance to cackle evilly at the youngsters as they turn up their noise-cancelling earphones.
Spare me the specifics about what some boomers may or may not have sucked out of whom. Let me just say that that sentence made my heart shrink two sizes with delight. 
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I really hate shopping; however, I do need to wear clothes. What I’ve found works for me is to go to Macy’s whenever they do their Friends and Family sale, spend a full day putting together a wardrobe. This way I can pick out things that actually match and go together, and since I buy it all on sale, it’s overall affordable. Then I do not foot in a store until the weather changes significantly and I need different clothes.
Problem for me is: no Macy’s in Chattanooga.
Sunday I was in Atlanta and my plans with my friends got cancelled, so I went over to Macy’s because my whole undergarments situation was needing immediate attention. I have not set foot in a mall at Christmas in a very very long time. I had forgotten how awful it is. And this particular mall is very fancy with a lot of designer stores with guards at the front - the Pucci store, the Gucci store, the Prada shop. I always feel broke and out of my element at a mall and this one being so intimidating made it especially hard.
The whole time I am shopping they are playing Christmas music. It really is music to shop to. It feels specifically designed to make you a little manic and ready to spend, and to blend with the frantic shopping situation where you are desperately need to buy presents by the deadline.
I ended up with just a few things that I’m not crazy about because I couldn’t handle the chaos of Christmas shopping with the racks overstuffed with sequins and aisles filled with useless gadgets no one needs so people can buy them for people they don’t really know or care about. But I did get some new underwear, so I’m calling it successful.
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You must have been in Phipps? Or Lenox? Fancy-pants malls…
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Lenox
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I approve this
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Well, hope the rest of your time in the ATL was more fun. What else did you do?
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Leave some space for craft breweries and artisanal bakeries and I’m curiously okay with it too. We can build bridges across the generational divide. 
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Don’t forget the stores where you can get lift chairs and canes and walkers and stuff.
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I spent the morning with my uncle, aunt, and cousin. I used to see them more often when I lived in Atlanta years ago, though my cousin is so much younger than me that we are really only now getting to know each other. It was nice to catch up with them.
He just turned 70 and he and his wife seem to be in a semi-retired kind of place. Their home is absolutely fucking gorgeous; they’ve had a lot of custom furniture made in an art nouveau/art deco style, and renovated their kitchen with a mission look to the architecture. They also collect a lot of cool fun gadgets, like the giant coffee pot - shaped coffee grinder that they demoed for me while I was there - and when I say giant, I mean like 3 feet tall.
It’s nice to be around high functioning family members. Their kids are both really cool people and they are both involved in their community in different ways. I mainly went down to show them that I am really close now and can easily get there and them to me. I also was going to get together with a friend/business associate but her basement flooded and she had to call off the plans.
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True story, my biological great-aunt’s husband was a shopping mall architect. Not sure which ones were his, though.
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