The Absurdly Wonderful World of Christmas

by Angela Sanford

   As the holiday season kicks into gear, it hit me this year that Christmas isn’t just one experience—there are endless versions of it, far beyond the Hallmark cliches that somehow have taken over every many channels.

  Take music, for example. While tuning into the Jimmy Fallon Holiday Seasoning channel on the free version of SiriusXM, I stumbled across The 12 Things I Hate About Christmas. By the second verse, the complaints were escalating faster than fruitcakes multiplying at a holiday buffet. I found myself genuinely rooting for the poor guy struggling to untangle the Christmas lights—an exercise in pure futility. And honestly? I could totally empathize.

   Or consider the classics: The Gift of the Magi is, of course, timeless, but have you ever listened to Bert and Ernie’s rendition of A Christmas Story? It’s a little ridiculous, a little heartwarming, and somehow, despite all the absurdity, it still sneaks a tear past my eye when Mr. Hooper arrives at their apartment to deliver the “best gift of all.”

   And then there’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which has been remade so many times that I’ve lost count—animated, live-action, musical, puppet versions… at this point, even the Grinch probably needs therapy.

   And let’s not forget the songs. Jingle Bells has been done as jazz, punk rock, heavy metal, and even reggae. Somewhere out there, I’m sure, is a heavy metal version performed entirely by screaming elves headbanging on miniature electric guitars. But, thankfully, to the best of my knowledge, no one has messed with  A Charlie Brown Christmas to date.

   The point is, Christmas has become wonderfully absurd. Between the parodies, the mash-ups, the alternative versions, and the over-the-top remakes, it’s like the holiday itself can’t decide what it wants to be. And perhaps that’s the magic of it—no matter how ridiculous or overdone, there’s a version out there for everyone! Some of them make you laugh, some make you cry, and some make you wonder why the Grinch is still so popular.

   In the end, the chaos of multiple Christmas versions is like a tangle of lights: frustrating at first, but step back, and it’s dazzling, hilarious, and somehow perfect in its own messy way—and, of course, the exact same tangled mess will star in next year’s newest version of Christmas.