A Hard Reindeer’s Gonna Fall
The chorus of “Oh-my-God, no”s that have greeted the announcement that Bob Dylan is set to release an album of Christmas songs, including “Here Comes Santa Claus” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem”, is history-challenged in the extreme. How could a Jew, say these detractors, even a Jew who, like Dylan, had a Christian phase, go so goy? I guess the naysayers never heard about that other Jewish recording-industry ’60s icon, Barbra Joan Streisand, and her 1967 “A Christmas Album.” Meanwhile, of all the suggested songs for Dylan to record, apart from the one in my headline, my favorites are “Sleigh Lady Slay” and “Girl from the North Pole Country.”
Note that, last time I looked, Streisand’s number-one selling album was her 1967 Christmas album. Also note that about half of the best-known Christmas carols were written by Jews. I have a Jewish boyfriend, but we celebrate Christmas because we feel like it’s more about Santa Claus than the birth of Christ, for better or for worse.