It always amuses me that most of our notions of a traditional Christmas come straight out of Victorian England. The idea of a Winter festival go back forever, but a lot of the essential elements — sleigh rides, Christmas trees, holiday cards — come from there. What the hell does it really have to do with our lives now?
A year ago, I interviewed Professor Stephen Nissenbaum, the author of the Pulitzer-Prize nominated book The Battle For Christmas, and we discussed many of the key economic issues that lie within our methods of celebrating Christmas. Bottom line: It really always has been about materialism: Santa’s Little Enablers.
But Christmas is celebrated in different places in different ways, so let’s look at a few. Today, we travel to the mean streets of Southern California — specifically to Long Beach and Compton. Even where life is cheap, they still take time to celebrate the holidays.
(The Snoop track is from a ‘96 Kevin & Bean CD; see further background here. I’ve always assumed it’s not actually Snoop Dogg, since the voice doesn’t sound quite right. The second song is a mash-up from around ‘04.)
Snoop and Friends – Christmastime in the LBC
BigBadBaz – Christmas in Compton
Tags: Christmas music, Snoop, LBC, Compton, mash-up