First, having descended from a long family tradition of NYPD officers (my generation the first not to wear the shield), I'd bet anything that there is a police officer or two in the Briggs family tree. Or at least a close friend in law enforcement -- real police work, as in the baddest of the cities in the US of A. Otherwise nobody could tell this tale as written here. Reads EXACTLY like real-life cops talk.
Secondly, more should be written about the war on Christmas that has long been waged by a specific non-Christian demographic, which has always used mass media for their evil mercantile and propaganda purposes. In fact, if I recall correctly, they invented such activities.
When I was a kid, Christmas season broadcasts owned the airwaves. Granted, it was very, very light on true pious observance of the meaning of the feast -- the nativity of Our Lord Jesus. But at least it was there, making Christimastime jolly indeed for innocent little kids either not yet at an age for spiritual contemplation, or lacking any meaningful Christian formation at home.
The erasure of that media tradition happened very gradually, in step with the encroaching moral and spiritual decline of the population at large. But clearly the transformation was complete when gathering around the cookies and eggnog to watch the movie "Die Hard" -- a big-budget Hollywood thriller about evil terrorists, rich in killings and explosions -- became a Christmas tradition for millions of Americans.
Could you tell me more about this transition? I have noticed in past years how different modern "Christmas music" [scare quotes because it isn't Christmas music] is when compared to older carols, even if some of them did not directly deal with the birth of Our Lord. It's nice to know that it isn't just me. What "Christmas songs" would you say are part of this shifting of Christmas, and when would you say it started to happen?
I cannot give you very recent information, Andrea. This is because I left the United States almost 25 years ago. And I have not owned a television for decades. But I am old enough to remember what it was like as a kid in the 1960s and even into the 70s. I would say that is when television programming at Christmastime was really wonderful. A number of programs were broadcast every year during the Christmas seaon. It was a real tradition, really an important part of the festive air of the holiday. There also were “Christmas specials” by entertainers who appealed to adult audiences, say big-name singers of the era. There were wonderful Christmas animation shows for kids. There was little real religious reverence in the broadcasts for the masses, but the programs with carols and hymns did create a kind of hushed and peaceful ambience in millions of homes.
And something people would laugh at today — although for all I know it might still be broadcast — was the “Yule log”. This was a TV broadcast simply showing a fireplace with wood burning in the hearth, maybe Christmas music playing gently in the background. A real fireplace, a real fire, not animated or “computer generated” :) Just that, the flickering fireplace in a continuous loop, nothing else. Not a person appeared, not a word spoken. Uninterrupted. Not even one commercial advert. I seem to recall it started after dinnertime and played through the night until morning.
I would say things started to change noticeably sometime around the mid-1970s, but would guess the shift became really evident in about the early 80s. This is also hard for me to pinpoint, because along the way I became a teenager and then young adult, and there were no longer loads of little kids at our family Christmas gatherings (also a sign of the times), so we were not tuning in to the stuff for kids, whatever was left of it.
But still, even as teens and then adults we could see the contrast quite clearly. I suppose one could describe it as less innocence, as modifying and adapting Christmas progamming to reflect the loss of innocence of the society as a whole, to reflect the trend toward secularization and against anything to do with religion. In step with this was of course the disgusting hyper-commercialization of the season.
But as I said, at some point much of the broadcasting had become edgy, shows more and more intended for adults, cynical humor, things like that. All wrapped up in superficial “Christmas” plots and so on. The last I remember, even that was more and more being abandoned. It seemed clear that the powers that be no longer wanted any of the innocence there had been for so many years, no more of creating a magical time specifically for children. But even as adults, every year we enjoyed watching the programs we loved so much as kids, a wonderful feeling of nostalgia for more innocent times. I wish you and yours a wonderful Christmastime of hope and good cheer!
I was born in the 2000's, so the most I got of "good-feel" Christmas was Hallmark movies, which can probably hardly be compared to what you describe. That sounds terrible. I wish I had experienced the kind of Christmas you talk about. Like you say, even if it wasn't religious in the outright, it sounds as if people still knew deep down what it was all about. Thank you for the lengthy reply! I am always very interested to hear how we got to where we are, and I can only learn about it from people who experienced it themselves. A blessed Christmastime to you and yours, too!
My own theory is that every human endeavour suffers from the same defects as humans. Since, for example, #MPAI, so too are many of our products.
A local gold mining operator told me years ago that the gold mine (they were turning a large hill into a very deep pit at the time) makes a worthwhile profit if every ton of ore they crush has 3 ounces of gold in it.
So I call this the Gold Mining Theory of Human Action, and it is this:
You Must Crush A LOT of Ore To Find A Few Nuggets Worth Keeping.
Good rule of thumb: with the exception of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day", if they won't be playing the carol in church, it's not worth listening to.
Eartha Kitt's "classic" has me lunging for the radio dial every time.
I just don’t get it. My work colleagues put the radio on of THEIR OWN FREE WILL. Luckily I can shack up in my office but I can hear the tinny awful acoustic trash echoing around the warehouse. WTF goes on in their heads?
The absolutely best recording of Christmas carols is Christmas Hymns and Carols by The Robert Shaw Chorale (1954). Still available if you search. This is what Christmas spirit sounds like. All that saccharine , irreverent pseudo-jolly pop can get fucked. Shaw rules!!!!
The "Te Amo Cigars" sign hanging over the bodegas of New York! Briggs bringin' the nostalgia hit for this native New Yorker. Never was in one, but seen those signs a million times.
Muzak music was designed to calm the masses. The decline of Muzak has resulted in our current state of mass agitation. The same can be said of smoking. That`s why I write like this.
First, having descended from a long family tradition of NYPD officers (my generation the first not to wear the shield), I'd bet anything that there is a police officer or two in the Briggs family tree. Or at least a close friend in law enforcement -- real police work, as in the baddest of the cities in the US of A. Otherwise nobody could tell this tale as written here. Reads EXACTLY like real-life cops talk.
Secondly, more should be written about the war on Christmas that has long been waged by a specific non-Christian demographic, which has always used mass media for their evil mercantile and propaganda purposes. In fact, if I recall correctly, they invented such activities.
When I was a kid, Christmas season broadcasts owned the airwaves. Granted, it was very, very light on true pious observance of the meaning of the feast -- the nativity of Our Lord Jesus. But at least it was there, making Christimastime jolly indeed for innocent little kids either not yet at an age for spiritual contemplation, or lacking any meaningful Christian formation at home.
The erasure of that media tradition happened very gradually, in step with the encroaching moral and spiritual decline of the population at large. But clearly the transformation was complete when gathering around the cookies and eggnog to watch the movie "Die Hard" -- a big-budget Hollywood thriller about evil terrorists, rich in killings and explosions -- became a Christmas tradition for millions of Americans.
I can actually hear the Christmas sofa groaning under all that weight.
Could you tell me more about this transition? I have noticed in past years how different modern "Christmas music" [scare quotes because it isn't Christmas music] is when compared to older carols, even if some of them did not directly deal with the birth of Our Lord. It's nice to know that it isn't just me. What "Christmas songs" would you say are part of this shifting of Christmas, and when would you say it started to happen?
I cannot give you very recent information, Andrea. This is because I left the United States almost 25 years ago. And I have not owned a television for decades. But I am old enough to remember what it was like as a kid in the 1960s and even into the 70s. I would say that is when television programming at Christmastime was really wonderful. A number of programs were broadcast every year during the Christmas seaon. It was a real tradition, really an important part of the festive air of the holiday. There also were “Christmas specials” by entertainers who appealed to adult audiences, say big-name singers of the era. There were wonderful Christmas animation shows for kids. There was little real religious reverence in the broadcasts for the masses, but the programs with carols and hymns did create a kind of hushed and peaceful ambience in millions of homes.
And something people would laugh at today — although for all I know it might still be broadcast — was the “Yule log”. This was a TV broadcast simply showing a fireplace with wood burning in the hearth, maybe Christmas music playing gently in the background. A real fireplace, a real fire, not animated or “computer generated” :) Just that, the flickering fireplace in a continuous loop, nothing else. Not a person appeared, not a word spoken. Uninterrupted. Not even one commercial advert. I seem to recall it started after dinnertime and played through the night until morning.
I would say things started to change noticeably sometime around the mid-1970s, but would guess the shift became really evident in about the early 80s. This is also hard for me to pinpoint, because along the way I became a teenager and then young adult, and there were no longer loads of little kids at our family Christmas gatherings (also a sign of the times), so we were not tuning in to the stuff for kids, whatever was left of it.
But still, even as teens and then adults we could see the contrast quite clearly. I suppose one could describe it as less innocence, as modifying and adapting Christmas progamming to reflect the loss of innocence of the society as a whole, to reflect the trend toward secularization and against anything to do with religion. In step with this was of course the disgusting hyper-commercialization of the season.
But as I said, at some point much of the broadcasting had become edgy, shows more and more intended for adults, cynical humor, things like that. All wrapped up in superficial “Christmas” plots and so on. The last I remember, even that was more and more being abandoned. It seemed clear that the powers that be no longer wanted any of the innocence there had been for so many years, no more of creating a magical time specifically for children. But even as adults, every year we enjoyed watching the programs we loved so much as kids, a wonderful feeling of nostalgia for more innocent times. I wish you and yours a wonderful Christmastime of hope and good cheer!
I was born in the 2000's, so the most I got of "good-feel" Christmas was Hallmark movies, which can probably hardly be compared to what you describe. That sounds terrible. I wish I had experienced the kind of Christmas you talk about. Like you say, even if it wasn't religious in the outright, it sounds as if people still knew deep down what it was all about. Thank you for the lengthy reply! I am always very interested to hear how we got to where we are, and I can only learn about it from people who experienced it themselves. A blessed Christmastime to you and yours, too!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdL4Ct_ogWdj-OSAHo-zl7bI-jT9AIAR8
I think if was Frank Zappa who said that whenever he heard young choir boys singing soprano, he`d reach down to make sure he was still all there.
All Hail to testosterone!
My own theory is that every human endeavour suffers from the same defects as humans. Since, for example, #MPAI, so too are many of our products.
A local gold mining operator told me years ago that the gold mine (they were turning a large hill into a very deep pit at the time) makes a worthwhile profit if every ton of ore they crush has 3 ounces of gold in it.
So I call this the Gold Mining Theory of Human Action, and it is this:
You Must Crush A LOT of Ore To Find A Few Nuggets Worth Keeping.
Books, music, TV, Radio, Film, consumer electronics, fashion ... people.
It's all the same.
Good rule of thumb: with the exception of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day", if they won't be playing the carol in church, it's not worth listening to.
Eartha Kitt's "classic" has me lunging for the radio dial every time.
They're not allowed (aloud) to play Fairytale Of New York by the Pogues any more.
Because F-word.
I liked your observation that they have forgotten Advent.
I just don’t get it. My work colleagues put the radio on of THEIR OWN FREE WILL. Luckily I can shack up in my office but I can hear the tinny awful acoustic trash echoing around the warehouse. WTF goes on in their heads?
Current events have taken me to Townes Van Zandt - and your note took me here -
https://youtu.be/PxvIWKHRYLI?si=8yITRPAvIjCkItyP
God Bless you Dr. B.
The absolutely best recording of Christmas carols is Christmas Hymns and Carols by The Robert Shaw Chorale (1954). Still available if you search. This is what Christmas spirit sounds like. All that saccharine , irreverent pseudo-jolly pop can get fucked. Shaw rules!!!!
Oh, the PAIN of relating. 🤣. On that note, (arf arf), Allison Krauss’s and Yo Yo Ma’s “Wexford Carol”.
The "Te Amo Cigars" sign hanging over the bodegas of New York! Briggs bringin' the nostalgia hit for this native New Yorker. Never was in one, but seen those signs a million times.
Well done Sir! Excellent 'feel' to the 1950's cop talk.
And thematically dead on.
Comment on the excesses of Xmas: Have you not noticed that most electronic torture devices come with a plug - that can, (and often should) be pulled?
Dunno man. I'd say there's lot of unreported Burl Ives related crimes out there.
Muzak music was designed to calm the masses. The decline of Muzak has resulted in our current state of mass agitation. The same can be said of smoking. That`s why I write like this.