Christmas Suicides-It's Those Damn Songs!


Experts always blame Christmas suicides on lost illusions. Apparently, people grandiosely expect the holiday to meet their ideals of family togetherness, piety, and the brotherhood of men. When their beautiful vision of life is disappointed, the average person gets depressed and-depending on their propensity for over-reaction-possibly even suicidal.

I wonder why no one has ever thought to blame Christmas-time suicides on Christmas songs. Admittedly, joyful and sometimes wistful Christmas tunes seem harmless enough. After all, Bing Crosby Johnny Mathis, and Perry Como sing holiday songs and why would these gentlemen of song want to hurt us?

I do not contend that Perry Como wanted us all to kill ourselves. However, merely because he sings his tunes with a silky voice, does not make the message any less lethal.

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer

In these lyrics Santa's reindeer exclude and scapegoat Rudolph because of his physical difference: his nose. Rudolph is not accepted until he rides out in a dangerous snowstorm with his nose glowing, risking electrocution. This pressure to fit in was enough to make Rudolph or any other self- respecting reindeer consider rhinoplasty.

Santa Clause Is Coming To Town
The stern lyrics, "You better not shout, you better not cry, you better not pout, I'm telling you why, Santa Clause is coming to town" sound like a threat to a child's mind. The words suggest that if the kid is not good, some guy named Clause will beat him to a pulp when he comes to town.

The Christmas Song
Homoerotic imagery- "chestnuts roasting on an open fire", "Jack Frost Nipping At Your Nose", what next, "Rupaul lapping at your heals?

White Christmas
"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas just like the ones I used to know", an anthem for White Supremacists? It appears to hearken back to a time before the explosion of immigrants into the US and when everyone was mostly "white". I can just imagine some clansman belting out this song to his destructive hordes. What does this song say about our most famous Christmas song?

Most people automatically accept Christmas songs because they are deceptively calming and full of traditional values. We do not react critically as we would to lyrics of open hostility voiced by Rap or Heavy Metal Singers. Instead, we are lulled into a false sense of security, then, we are subtly influenced by their hidden and symbolic messages of hate, fear and prejudice. I do not even want to imagine the symbolism of "chestnuts roasting on an open fire".