Bah, Humbug...

"No that's too strong, after all it's my favorite Holiday..."
So states the opening line of The Waitresses single Christmas Wrapping.

Sure, we grew up listening to all of the soulful songs of Black artists - but none resonated with me in the same way as did a few New Wave classics from the '80's.
Even when we moved from the hood to the hills - Christmas (for me, being the oldest boy to a mean as hell stepfather) usually sucked.
I remember one Christmas in the hills in which my step father was on strike.
My sister and brothers received presents - all I got was a new Afro Pick and five lottery tickets.
For me, Christmas often sucked.
So "Bah, Humbug..." expressed my true feeling of the season.
(But the song had a happy ending.)

Another song heard at malls and gallerias across the country is The Kinks Father Christmas.
"Father Christmas, give us some money, don't mess around with your silly toys, beat you up if you don't hand it over... save all your toys, for the little rich boys"
During my years in the hood, I could relate to this sentiment.
But the song has a happy ending,
as did even my most terrible Christmases.

" Yada, yada, yada...."
It seems that some people are upset with the whole Band Aid effort and their release of their single Do They Know It's Christmas?.
With only about half of the country being Christian - I doubt that many would have even known what Christmas was.
But at least these guys in the group made an effort to make things better for others.

But this song continues my theme - Sometimes Christmas Sucks.
As I'm typing this - I just found out that one of my younger brothers has contracted HIV while the other is back in the system.
But in their recent collect calls - these "terrible" Christmases were cited as some of the best times in our lives together.

Yeah...
Sometimes Christmas sucks.
Sometimes we/I like songs that don't fit our/my supposed demographic.
But even when something may suck for ourselves, maybe were are making things better for someone else.
Maybe these people will remember these times as some of their best ever.
Maybe Christmas does have a happy ending.

(BTW - I even prefer Whistle's Santa Clause Is A B-Boy to Run DMC's Christmas In Hollis.
And I prefer Prince's 4 The Tears of Their Eyes to the whole of the We Are The World project.)