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OPINION
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Only in America do we fi ght over holiday cheer
BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ Glendale Star Columnist
At the risk of being politically incorrect in the extreme, there’s an old English insult known as “the Chinese curse” — though apparently no one can actually track it back to originating in China. Anyway, the idea is, the most pleasant times in life are often dull and free of drama. So the curse goes, “May you live in interesting times.”
That we live in times more interesting than any in the last 2,000 years was driven home for me the other night when I had post-golf beers with a few friends and our gathering degenerated into hard feelings over one fellow wishing another who was about to depart, “Happy holidays.”
The guy being wished well stopped a step from the table. He made a facial expression like something was putrid.
“You mean Christmas?” He gave out a theatrical snort. “If that’s what you mean, why not say it? Merry (expletive) Christmas.” The well-wisher looked one part astonished and one part homicidal. “You’re kidding me, right? You’re bent out of shape because I wished you happy holidays?” What became apparent from the beery argument that ensued is that — as with everything else in our culture today — Americans appear to be entrenched in several camps over the subject of season’s greetings.
Toward the more “woke” end of the political spectrum, it’s deemed appropriate to make every effort to be inclusive. Thus, phrases like “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Hanukkah” are considered offensive, on the offchance the person being spoken to does not celebrate the holiday in question.
Among many conservatives, meanwhile, it appears that sayings like “Merry Christmas” are a badge of honor — sort of like a “Let’s Go Brandon” for the holidays. Despite the fact that some people may be offended when you say it, you say it anyway, and you do so proudly, because saying things that offend some people apparently brands you as a member of the cool kids’ club.
Then there’s the third group of people, to which I belong. My guess is, this group comprises approximately 9 out of 10 Americans with an IQ above, say, room temperature — at the North Pole. In an igloo. In mid-winter.
Members of this group don’t take pride in actively offending people, nor are we offended when people make a sincere effort to wish us a “Merry Christmas” or any other sort of good day. If the holiday in question happens to be one we don’t celebrate, we give the person credit for trying and we say something clever in response. Like, “Thanks! You, too!”
We handle situations like this in stride because we prefer not to spend our time on earth policing holiday greetings or arguing over minutiae. Not that we’re averse to arguments, understand.
But we prefer to save our fi ghting for truly earth-shattering topics, like whether “Breaking Bad” was a better series than “The Sopranos” (by a smidge) or which Valley community has the worst drivers (Apache Junction during snowbird season, hands down).
In our world, a phrase like “Happy holidays,” isn’t linguistic code for anything other than a genuine wish that the recipient enjoy the time period between late November (the beginning of Hanukkah this year) and late December to early January (which includes Christmas, Kwanzaa and New Year’s).
For us, being in the holiday spirit also means cutting our friends and kind strangers a little bit of slack.
To recap: If we meet each other, feel free to wish me season’s greetings, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or whatever fl oats your boat. When you live in interesting times, you take your merriment and wishes for happiness wherever you can fi nd them. Because only in America are we cursed to fi ght over holiday cheer.
David Leibowitz has called the Valley home since 1995. Contact david@leibowitzsolo.com.
‘Charlie Brown Christmas’ was a TV miracle
BY J.D. HAYWORTH Glendale Star Columnist
It’s happened again, and it’s not too far-fetched to call it a “Christmas miracle.”
For the 56th consecutive year, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” appeared on national television. In 2021, just as in 2020, the Public Broadcasting Service telecast the celebrated animated special without commercial interruption.
A major commercial disruption of this holiday tradition appeared imminent in October of last year. Apple TV+ acquired the exclusive rights to all media related to “Peanuts,” the comic strip that introduced Charlie Brown and company to America. Despite a pledge by Apple TV+ to make “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and two other animated specials available “free” for viewers on the platform over a three-day period, a clamor arose in the Heartland.
Well over a quarter million people signed an online petition protesting Apple’s decision, claiming that it left “us devoted fans who have grown up with Charlie Brown and the ‘Peanuts’ gang in the dark, unable to watch.”
The criticism prompted Apple — beware the mixed fruit metaphor — to take lemons and make lemonade. That’s when the tech giant struck the deal with PBS to air the show over traditional “free TV.”
Questions and varying degrees of controversy have surrounded “A Charlie Brown Christmas” since it was literally on the drawing board. “Peanuts” Creator Charles M. Schulz teamed with producer Lee Mendelson and director Bill Melendez to take his characters from the newspaper comics section into prime-time TV. By the production standards for animation in the mid-1960s, this presentation was… well, different.
Not only did it look different, with limited animated movement among the characters; it sounded different. No laugh track. A soundtrack that primarily featured the jazz piano of Vince Guaraldi, with a little Beethoven and a couple of Christmas Carols added for good measure. And the voices of the characters weren’t adults trying to sound like kids; they were children.
But the biggest difference was found in the story that Schulz devised. It did not revolve around Santa or Frosty or Rudolph; this was a Christmas story that dealt with the “reason for the
HAYWORTH FROM PAGE 8 season.” Charlie Brown bemoans the commercialization of the holiday; depressed and exasperated, he shouts the question, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?”
Linus answers him, effectively and movingly, by reciting from the Gospel of Luke: “For unto you is born this day in the City of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”
“That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown,” he concludes.
A historical observer might conclude that this all came together seamlessly in the year 1965, that the tenor of the times was favorably disposed toward religious expression, and that the creative team was of one accord.
That wasn’t the case.
As Schulz outlined the story, Bill Melendez objected.
“You can’t put the Bible on television,” the director exclaimed.
Producer Lee Mendelson recalled the response of Charles Schulz: “If we don’t do it, who will?”
Jean Schulz, the cartoonist’s widow, explained her husband’s sense of purpose in an interview last year with Yahoo Entertainment: “He just loved the Bible and thought there were just marvelous things in the Bible that were true.”
Believers and nonbelievers alike can recognize this truth in the resolve of Charles M. Schulz: His insistence on incorporating scripture in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” makes that fi rst “Peanuts” special truly special.
The vagaries of television and the legal wrangling of powerful corporations may conspire to keep this Christmas tradition off of “free TV” next year. Whatever its fate, the message will endure.
Though he left this earthly realm two decades ago, Schulz no doubt understood these words from the Gospel of John: “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”
That’s the real “Christmas Miracle.”
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The Glendale Star welcomes letters that express readers’ opinion on current topics. Letters must include the writer’s full name, address (including city) and telephone number. The Glendale Star will print the writer’s name and city of residence only. Letters without the requisite identifying information will not be published. Letters are published in the order received, and they are subject to editing. The Glendale Star will not publish consumer complaints, form letters, clippings from other publications or poetry. Letters’ authors, not the Glendale Star, are responsible for the “facts” presented in letters.
J.D. Hayworth worked as a sportscaster at Channel 10, Phoenix, from 1987 until 1994 and represented Arizona in Congress from 19952007.
MARGULIES’ OPINION – jimmymargulies.com
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Christmas poem: A donkey, a wish and a sleigh
BY JUDY BLUHM Glendale Star Columnist In Arizona, it was Christmas Eve night. The town streets were empty, with no one in sight. Out on a fi eld, under a moon shining bright Was a wee lonely donkey with a big wish tonight.
He threw his head back and let out a bray, “Please, dear Lord, give me a purpose today.” Why did reindeers take over to pull Santa’s sleigh? When a donkey carried Mary on that fi rst Christmas Day, To a place in a stable, to give birth on the hay.
So why can’t a donkey do something grand? This question he posed as he looked out at the land. Then what did he see but a sleigh in the sky Heading swiftly toward him and not fl ying high.
Little donkey did jump when the sleigh touched the ground As Santa called out, “Come on, you’ve been found!” Wee donkey just stared as he stood still as the night, But Santa approached him, with a lantern for light. “Please little donkey, come lead our team.” The donkey then brayed, “Am I in a dream?” Santa chuckled as he shook his head no, “Let’s hitch you up donkey, so then we can go!”
Children did marvel when they looked in the sky, Calling out to their parents, “A donkey can fl y!” So wee donkey, eight reindeers and one jolly man Showed the world if you dream it, then maybe you can. Because on Christmas Eve night, our wishes come true For one little donkey, for me and for you.
Judy Bluhm is a writer and a local Realtor. Have a comment or a story? Email her at judy@judybluhm.com.
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