Re: "White Christmas" (Was ho ho who?)

[Robert Cohen <rlcm17...>]

It has been said, or written--and maybe posted to this list (maybe by 
me?)--that Berlin may have helped de-Christianize Christmas, so to speak 
(hence making it, and its season, less threatening to Jews), with his 
song--which evokes associations that anyone can share and so 
quasi-universalizes certain aspects of Christmas, while benignly ignoring 
its religious underpinning.

Obviously one might understand and evaluate that in many different 
ways--and, as it happens, I'm no fan at all of "White Christmas," or of 
Berlin, for that matter--but I can see some validity to this take on the 
song.  OTOH, the song may also have made it easier for far too many Jews to 
make Christmas part of their own lives, a la Anne Roiphe's notorious NY 
Times Op-Ed of years ago.

--Robert Cohen



>I feel somewhat uneasy knowing that a Jew, by writing "White Christmas", 
>has been the cause of disappointment in so many Christian kids in the 
>United States (at least in NYC).
>
>Bob

>   Taking Credit
>   By VIVI ABRAMS
>   Atlanta Jewish Times
>
>
>   A Methodist dad wants to get into the Christmas mood. He plays a record 
>of "The Christmas Song," and sings along to the familiar "chestnuts 
>roasting on an open fire" refrain. Then he feels like a movie, and watches 
>"White Christmas" with his family. Before bed, he reads his daughter the 
>Caldecott-winning children's Christmas book, "The Polar Express."
>
>   He's just had a very Jewish night.


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