A Nice Jewish Girl Celebrates Christmas

-
And why not?  The secular aspects of the season have become deeply ingrained in our American tradition.  It's part of our communal heritage.

Not to mention, I have plenty of company:  the most famous Christmas songs were written by Jewish men -- Irving Berlin wrote "White Christmas" and Mel Torme wrote "The Christmas Song".  Barbra Streisand, Neil Sedaka, Kenny G.  and (Lord help us) Neil Diamond have all recorded Christmas albums.  Barry Manilow recorded THREE Christmas albums.  Allan Sherman recorded one of the funniest Christmas songs ever.   And Phil Spector produced one of the best-selling Christmas albums of all time.

I could go on and on in this vein....but Adam Sandler did it better....

No, Christmas is not "my" holiday, you won't find me at Midnight Mass.  But the ideals of the holiday -- peace on Earth, good will towards man, charity, benevolence, altruism, friendship, generosity, kindness, compassion -- are the ideals good people of all faiths advocate and support.  The gathering of friends and family is something to be cherished.  It's no wonder that many religions and ethnic groups celebrate joyous holidays at this, the darkest time of the year, as we grow closer to those around us and seek to banish the darkness from our lives...

So you will find me at a friend's house tonight, basking in the glow of her Christmas tree and enjoying a festive meal.  And tomorrow, the fulfillment of a stereotype -- going to the movies and out for Chinese food (thank you, Justice Kagan!).

So let me wish you all the joys of the season.  Happy holidays -- Christmas, Chanuka, Kwanzaa, Festivus or whatever you choose to celebrate -- and a happy and healthy New Year to one and all.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It’s all coming back to me now

-
 So you should know that I am not a “shopper”.  I live in shopping mall heaven — I’m ten minutes from the Broadway Mall,  15 from Roosevelt Field and 25 from Whitman Shoppes — but I seldom go to the mall.  I prefer to shop on line.  And when I do venture into a store, I usually know what I want and buy it as quickly as possible.  I’m not one to browse through stores just to see what’s for sale. There’s a local chain,  Baked By Melissa , that specializes in mini cupcakes.  They’re primarily in Manhattan.  A few years ago Becca introduced me to their product - delicate little cakes, exquisitely decorated, very tasty.  I walk past their shop on 7th Avenue whenever we go to the theater. Well, last week I remembered that they used to have a second shop on 7th, right next to the original shop, but selling gluten-free versions of all their cupcakes. The gluten-free shop closed, but the company continues to make a gluten-free version of their product. So I thought that gluten-free cupcakes wou
Read more

DISboards nonsense

-
found a new blog today. Love it. http://secret-squirrel.webs.com/index.htm I've posted there under various names over the last 10 years or so. it went from a sweet little board that was Pete Werner's hobby to ....well, a real nightmare. that a board devoted to all things Disney can be such a nasty, racist, childish (not childlike) place.... loving the inside scoop, though. Did I ever tell you how "songbird" was banned from the DIS? I was a poster in good standing for 3-4 years. Even booked my trips through Dreams Unlimited, back when Pete was careful to distinguish between the disboards as a hobby and Dreams as his business. Pete and Webmaster Alex were struggling with server issues, the disboards would go down more often than they'd stay up. then Pete announced cosmetic changes to wdwinfo.com, which feeds into the disbaords forum. Like all other members of the forum, I was frustrated. so I was a bit sarcastic. I posted something to the effect of "would yo
Read more

Music Monday

-
Image
Another “your choice” week. How about new music from icons of the 60’s and 70’s? Let’s start with Jimmy Buffett’s posthumous hit, “Bubbles Up”. The Rolling Stones released a new song in 2023, it’s called “Angry”. The surviving Beatles (with some  help from AI) released “Now and Then”. And then Billy Joel …    The AI effects in the video blew me away… A note about the AI effects … the Beatles used it to isolate John’s vocals on an old demo.  Billy Joel had a young man play the piano then superimposed his own face onto the image of the younger man.   
Read more