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Does Joe Biden Know It's Christmas? Or, a Reason Holiday Miracle
As 2010 winds to a close, Reason wishes everybody happy holidays and a great new year. Since we're officially off tomorrow and Friday, we thought we'd start the nog-bong a bit earlier than usual.
Here's a small selection of past Christmas/holiday videos and writings for you to while away the last few hours of the week. Watch, tweet, repeat. And if you don't, then go get boiled in some plum pudding and buried with a sprig of holly through your heart! Or get stuck watching White House Christmas videos, a genre that has been ruled the legal equivalent of torture.
First up is this year's offering, "A Joe Biden (War on) Christmas," which many early viewers took seriously (really, read the comments at our YouTube channel and then be very, very afraid for the future of your country).
Last year, we rolled out "Be Happy! Why this is the best holiday season ever," which didn't perplex viewers, though it enraged more than its fair share with its upbeat celebration of continuous toy improvement (CTI). Those of us who remember shock-tastic electric football games (clearly, the origin of today's over-the-top touchdown celebrations stem from the St. Vitus Dance-like gyrations of players too close to the corner of the field with the vibrator in it!) will beg to differ.
For some reason no one can quite remember, we skipped an actual Christmas video in 2008, though we did feature Christopher Hitchens at our Very Special, Very Secular Christmas Party in 2007, where the author of, most recently, Hitch-22, led the crowd in a dramatic reading and dolorous sing-along of Tom Lehrer's "Christmas Carol." Mr. Potter never treated George Bailey as tough as Hitchens' treats Santa Claus below.
Then there are the stories, the good old-fashioned writings we've produced over the years. Highlights include:
2008's "Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding: What's so funny about Christmas as a secular holiday," by Jacob Sullum.
2008's "Merry Christmas, Kwanzaa is Over," by Michael C. Moynihan.
2008's "The Fight Before Christmas: Why the War on Christmas is even less winnable than the War on Drugs," by Greg Beato.
2006's "Oy, Tannebaum: You've got your Christmas in my Chanukah," by Jacob Sullum.
2005's "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians: The War on Christmas is over. Guess who won," by Jesse Walker.
2004's "The True Spirit of Xmas: How 4/5 of the country became an oppressed minority," by Julian Sanchez.
And for a holiday-themed buzz-kill that remains as relevant as it did when it ran in 2005, check out "Who Grew Your Tree?: If you like Christmas, thank an immigrant," by Jesse James DeConto and me, which calls attention to the hard-hearted and misguided immigration laws of these United States.
For readers employed by the TSA and other jobs with lots of down-time where concentration and attention really aren't required, check out every mention of Christmas at Reason.com by going here.
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Warty|12.22.10 @ 3:31PM|#
Have a gay, gay, gay, hairy, gay, sort-of-metal Christmas.
Warty|12.22.10 @ 3:34PM|#
Stoner Christmas
Jeff P|12.22.10 @ 3:52PM|#
I celebrate Yak Shaving Day.
The rest of you are heathens.
Fist of Etiquette|12.22.10 @ 4:08PM|#
"Christmas is a time when people of all religions come together to worship Jesus Christ."
SIV|12.22.10 @ 4:29PM|#
Christmas songs!
The Damned
Mike M.|12.22.10 @ 4:32PM|#
A very merry Christmas to Hitch (hope you get well soon) and all the fine denizens of Cosmotaria. May your cocktail parties be merry and your weed not be seedy.
SIV|12.22.10 @ 4:32PM|#
Phil Spector could always produce a good Christmas song
Ramones
SIV|12.22.10 @ 4:35PM|#
It ain't Christmas without Joan Jett
Jeff P|12.22.10 @ 4:57PM|#
That sentence literally made me shudder.
I once walked into a record store and saw a disc called The Essential Eddie Money. After some reflection I realized that not only could I not think of a condition, situation or circumstance where Eddie Money would be considered essential, but that most of life's truly poignant and beautiful moments are enhanced by the absence of Eddie Money.
So I wish you Eddie Money Free Holiday.
Warty|12.22.10 @ 4:55PM|#
The one Bob Dylan song I like
Jeff P|12.22.10 @ 5:01PM|#
Christ, did Bob lose a bet?