Lex Lata

This is one of the best times of the year. It's time for us to break out the Christmas music and hopefully remember the real reason for all of the celebration. Everyone seems to be much happier when they complete their Christmas shopping and take a bit of time to be with family and friends. Christmas music is possibly my favorite music, primarily because it brings back great memories of my childhood and adolescence. I also appreciate that it brings a great spirit with it on top of the memories. I think that the spirit that accompanies Christmas music is especially strong because of the levity of the time of year and the fact that we avoid listening to Christmas music all year. Additionally, the music is focused on something much different than most of the music you hear on the radio throughout the year. Christmas music is about Christmas (tautology alert!). It's message is not about money, politics, sappy love, etc...

After all this buildup, I want to discuss the worst song ever to be dubbed a Christmas song: Happy Christmas (also known as War is Over) by John Lennon after frying his brain from all of his drug abuse and Yoko Ono, ditto. John Lennon was a gift to the world from the music gods, and then he met Yoko. This song is everything that can be wrong with a Christmas song. It's political; this was their statement on the Vietnam war. It's ugly; "happy Christmas, war is over" being sung by a chorus of possessed sounding demonic children? I don't think so. There is no real Christmas message to it; it's only classified as a Christmas song because it says Christmas a few times. I have made a vow to turn the radio off every time it's played. I think everyone should do themselves a favor and do the same.