Yeah, the streets are deserted, and that's big news.
December 25, 2014 6:38 PM   Subscribe

Christmastime for the Jews! In a hysterical claymation-style animated short about Jews having free reign over the country on Christmas, Darlene Love [previously] sings about the many benefits of not celebrating the holiday.

Originally aired as part of a TV Funhouse segment of Saturday Night Live on December 17, 2005.

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Lyrics/Transcript
posted by Servo5678 (19 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 


I love Ms. Love.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:51 PM on December 25, 2014 [1 favorite]


Free REIN.

Sheesh.
posted by Repack Rider at 8:27 PM on December 25, 2014


...deer
posted by Sys Rq at 8:46 PM on December 25, 2014 [4 favorites]


I love Ms. Love.

She sounds WAY different than she did with Hole.
posted by univac at 9:02 PM on December 25, 2014 [1 favorite]


This looks like Dino Stamatopoulos' work.
posted by boo_radley at 9:04 PM on December 25, 2014


Stamatopoulos co-wrote a lot of TV Funhouse cartoons, but not this one.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:45 PM on December 25, 2014


Don't forget the Buddhists. The local Vietnamese supermarket was busy this afternoon. Bless them- I didn't think to stock in food or booze until after the stores closed yesterday. Christmas was duly saved.
posted by wotsac at 9:49 PM on December 25, 2014


What I like about Ms. Love, and this song in particular is that it's almost a toggle switch where one side says NO CHRISTMAS, and the other side says CHRISTMAS, and it's blatantly visible when that switch is flipped. Because, goddamn, that's some real deal Christmas right there.
posted by Sphinx at 10:07 PM on December 25, 2014


Today, I saw the blog entry of a lady in my town, whose Christmas plans got canceled on her and she was feeling down. Then the idea of a Jewish Christmas was brought up and she felt better....and then she made the mistake of mentioning it on Facebook, where the Jewish folks she knew there basically ripped her a new one. I felt so bad for her.

You know what? Jewish Christmas is freaking great. Possibly the best Christmas I ever had was one spent in that style. Jewish Christmas is great for those who don't fit in, who don't have family to spend it with, who want to do something besides sit in the damn house dwelling. Oh yeah, and church is BORING and in my neck of the woods, done on December 24, not 25th. I may not be Jewish even though I kinda always wanted to be a bit, but celebrating "Christian" style by being stuck at my aunt's house all day and night getting passive-aggressively insulted sucked. Fuck it.

I dunno on those empty streets, though: I went to SF this year and the streets were pretty much as full as usual and probably half the businesses were open anyway.
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:06 AM on December 26, 2014


> "... where the Jewish folks she knew there basically ripped her a new one."

... Why would they do that? That seems so mean. I'm Jewish by heritage, have had Jewish Christmas more than once, and I don't understand. It's a great idea and anyone can do it, and it's not like someone is appropriating some ancient and private religious ceremony by doing so.
posted by kyrademon at 2:36 AM on December 26, 2014


I started a new job in a Jewish preschool in January and when co-workers asked me what my holiday plans were, I got lots of, "You're such a good Jew!"

Said plans: Chinese takeout while watching A Christmas Story. It's our tradition for Christmas Eve, and no, I am not Jewish.
posted by cooker girl at 6:23 AM on December 26, 2014


You know what? Jewish Christmas is freaking great. Possibly the best Christmas I ever had was one spent in that style. Jewish Christmas is great for those who don't fit in, who don't have family to spend it with, who want to do something besides sit in the damn house dwelling.

I appreciate your positive intentions but you might consider rephrasing these sentiments in the future. For one thing, you imply that Jews "don't fit in" and maybe "don't have family to spend [Christmas] with." It's borderline, but coming from a non-Jew it can definitely grate.

If I had to guess about why your friend caught flak online, I would guess that it's because there's an aspect of cultural tourism to adopting the traditions of a group that a) is historically persecuted and b) developed these traditions to cope with living in a culture that assumes that Christ is your lord and Christmas is your holiday.

More on topic, I have always loved this video.
posted by telegraph at 6:23 AM on December 26, 2014 [1 favorite]


I went to SF this year and the streets were pretty much as full as usual and probably half the businesses were open anyway.

Not SF, but I noticed the same in a nearby east coast town myself yesterday.

I wonder if the bad economy is to blame.
posted by IndigoJones at 7:15 AM on December 26, 2014


As far as I can tell, Jewish Christmas has largely gone mainstream. It used to be like a B'nai B'rith convention, you'd go for Chinese food, there would be your Hebrew teache rfrom 4th grade, you'd go to a movie and half the kids from you bar mitvah were there. Now it's all gentiles.

I'm just celebrating Christmas in the traditional secular way now -- meal with family, open presents by the Christmas tree, refuse to reference Jesus. I can get Chinese food and see a movie any day.
posted by maxsparber at 8:14 AM on December 26, 2014


As someone who was raised Jewish, it has always surprised me how many people have expressed concern and sympathy for me upon discovering I was Jewish, assuming the Christmas season must be this incredibly sad, lonely, isolating experience. I always loved the Christmas season. We had our own present receiving holiday to celebrate within the same general timeframe, so there was no envy that my other friends were getting gifts while I was sitting home empty-handed. Even though I didn't celebrate Christmas personally, I got all of the same benefits as my Christian friends in terms of (depending on what stage of life I was at) being out of school or getting days off of work that didn't required PTO.

When I was younger, Christmas was a day I always looked forward to, knowing this was one day a year the whole family dedicated to spending together, just us, seeing a movie (and usually a more art house one that I would have never been able to get any of my friends to see with me) and having a nice dinner out together.

When I moved out on my own as a young adult, many of my Christian friends, feeling sorry for me, would invite me over to celebrate Christmas with their families. While I always appreciated the kindness of the gesture, honestly, I relished the idea of spending Christmas by myself. Here was the one day a year where I could plop myself down in front of the TV from the second I woke up until the moment I went to bed with absolutely no expectation that I should be doing anything more useful or valuable with my time.

Not until I married outside of my religion did I realize just how good I had it before. Now I got to participate in previously unheard of activities like spending the majority of a day standing atop a rickety ladder hanging lights and then repeating the same action just a few weeks later taking them down again, bringing an overpriced tree into my home that did little more than make a huge mess and that I was just going to throw out a few weeks later anyway, fighting the insanity that is last minute crowds at the mall, emptying out the majority of my bank account and dealing with the sensitive family politics and inevitable resentment of where to spend Christmas Eve/Day (from my experience, Chanukah being a much more minor holiday, didn't involve these same stresses).

When I look back wistfully at my warmest Christmas memories, they usually involve me, sweatpants, frozen burritos and my collection of pro wrestling videos.
posted by The Gooch at 10:21 AM on December 26, 2014 [4 favorites]


I've been a movie theater projectionist for 30 years now, and I've developed a theory about why it's usually packed houses on Christmas, as well as Easter, Thanksgiving, etc. etc.

These are all holidays when you're supposedly huddled with your nearest & dearest in a big ol' family love-fest.... I suspect that taking cranky Uncle Fred or motor-mouth Aunt Gertrude to the movies means you get credit for family-time ("see, I just spent three hours one-on-one with wacko Cousin Melvin! It's somebody else's turn!") while also not having to listen to them ("shhh, I can't hear the movie!").

Movies on Christmas: it's not just a Jewish thing.
posted by easily confused at 12:18 PM on December 26, 2014 [3 favorites]






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