OPINION
THE MESA TRIBUNE | DECEMBER 19, 2021
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Only in America do we fight over holiday cheer BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ Tribune Columnist
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t 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 %$*ing 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. Towards 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 off-chance 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 nine 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 fighting 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 floats your boat. When you live in interesting times, you take your merriment and wishes for happiness wherever you can find them. Because only in America are we cursed to fight over holiday cheer. ■
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-1960’s, this presentation was…well, different. Not only did it look different, with limit-
ed 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 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 non-believers alike can
‘Charlie Brown Christmas’ was a TV miracle BY JD HAYWORTH Tribune Columnist
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t’s happened again, and it’s not too farfetched 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. AppleTV+ acquired the exclusive rights to all media related to “Peanuts,” the comic strip that introduced Charlie Brown & Company to America. Despite a pledge by AppleTV+ 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.
see HAYWORTH page 22
