Village Voice on Jews and Holiday Music

[Bob Wiener <wiener...>]

Weatherbird
                by Gary Giddins
                Christmas Gilt
                A Bounty of Chestnuts and Gift Boxes
                December 2nd, 2002 4:30 PM

                   he annual profusion of Christmas albums suggests a 
bottomless appetite for the same dozen or 15 songs
                done in every conceivable fashion, and a hapless record 
industry is eager to oblige. When in doubt, shake up
                the backlist, develop a seasonal pun, and leave the rest to 
nostalgia. It is frequently noted that most of the
                good American Christmas songs, beginning with Berlin's "White 
Christmas" (1942, not so very long ago), are by
                Jewish composers. They have secularized the revelry to the 
point where even unlapsed Catholics must at times
                struggle to recall that all the fuss commemorates their 
savior's birth and not merely ASCAP and BMI annuities
                involving sleigh bells, drummer boys, chipmunks, reindeer, 
chestnuts, Santa, Frosty, and, most crucially,
                snow-of which there was a dearth in Galilee. Why those 
songwriters could not bestir themselves to write a
                single decent Hanukkah song is a mystery for the ages. Hath not 
a Jew snow, snowmen, bells, singing animals,
                Buddy Rich?