Do They Know It's Christmas Time?

Ok guys, I have a bone to pick with this Christmas song.

The song was written and performed originally for the 1983-1985 famine in Ethiopia. Now that, that is great and fabulous. That is not my problem with this song at all.

Have you guys listened to the lyrics of this song?


Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you
Thank God it's them and not you? Do they think that is inspiring? I think that is a horrible thing to think. I understand the sentiment they're trying to get across here, but is comes across like praying to God, thanks for letting them starve, so I don't have to....




And there won't be snow in Africa this christmas time
Why would they have snow for Christmas? December is summertime in Africa. I remember once reading about Nicole Kidman saying she hangs out in her bikini on Christmas because it's summer time there, it's not winter. Having snow for Christmas is totally a northern westernized idea of Christmas. It's a little bit of an ethnocentric idea.


Do they know it's christmas time at all?
Ah, my biggest bone to pick with this song. I never thought about this before living in a non Christian country...The largest religion in Africa is Islam...therefore they aren't Christian. Christmas in Cambodia was not a big deal to Cambodians, because they're Buddhist, they don't celebrate Christmas, it's not part of their religion. It's the same for Islamists. So why would they care if it's Christmas time if they don't celebrate Christmas or believe in Christ?
And if they are Christian, as a growing number of African are, just because there's hard times going on, why would they forget that it's Christmas?
Again, ethnocentrism.


And guys, there are lots more I could go on about. I think it's great that they want to help out those experiencing calamtities all over the world, but I really hope next time they'll think about the lyrics a little more, especially if they want us to get behind their message.

I guess I'll step off my soap box now. That song has just been driving me nuts on the radio this year.

Christmas Music

Boo! Two nights ago my laptop got a mega virus on it. I wasn't even doing anything naughty, I swear. Hal and I were looking at apartments to find this one he randomly saw and really liked and he clicked on one....not even an outside link and it immediately downloaded a virus onto my computer. It liked to pretend it was anti-virus software to get you to download it and make your computer even worse, but I didn't fall for it, because I know I didn't have anti virus on my computer, so I knew it wasn't real.

How bad is that, I didn't have anti-virus so I knew something was wrong? Maybe pretty bad. So I called up my trusty computer guy, my brother in law, but by that time it wouldn't let me do anything, it would just say this file is infected, want to download? No! I don't want to download you, I want to download the anti-virus stuff he told me to get. Luckily he is amazing and last night he came to my dad's after work where we were having our meeting and he fixeded up my computer. Yay! I have to do another scan, so I am doing my post from my work computer, so no pictures, sad day. You'll just have to stay tuned for a funny picture post I have planned.

Anywho, I have started listening to Christmas music on Kosy and 100.3...those aren't the same, right? I get their titles and the station number mixed up. I don't like to do too many Christmasy things before Thanksgiving is over, because I don't want Thanksgiving to be overlooked. So the day after Thanksgiving as I was driving at 3:30 to pick up my little brother and my brother-in-law and head to Target I officially turned on the Christmas music.

We may even go get a tree this Saturday. I hate fake trees, I've had a real tree my whole life, and it's definitely something I want to carry on in my family, so last year we had a real tree and we will this year, as soon as we can find our tree stand, which Hal said he thinks he brought to my dad's to store with all of his decorations, 'cause that makes so much sense. I think we're going to be house/babysitting this weekend, and I thought it would be fun to take the boys with us to get a tree. Good idea, no?

Oh right, I got distracted, back to Christmas music. Does anyone else think it's weird that at the beginning of Frosty the Snowman it says "Happy Birthday" What in the world? Are they saying happy birthday to Frosty, or to any random person who is listening to the song, in case it might be their birthday. If it's to Frosty, the song says he will be back again someday, so maybe he had been made before, and it wasn't really his birthday. It truly is a conundrum. Just kidding, I just wanted to say that word.

I must be listening really closely to these songs because we were listening to We Need A Little Christmas the other day and I noticed it said this "Carols at the spinet" Again, What? I was confused because I thought it said carols up the spinet and that didn't make sense to me. Hal said they just needed a word to rhyme with minute, and I said it would say carols up the wazoo, because I like that word better; and I was pretty sure they made up the word spinet.

Apparently I was wrong though. I looked up the word spinet, and it is another name for a harpsichord. Yeah, try fitting that into a song. Alright fine, I will let the word spinet slip, but not Happy Birthday.

Maybe I should be a lyric editor for songs for a living? That seems like a promising career choice. I'll have to double check with Hal and see what he thinks.

I hope you all are enjoying your Christmas music, and are beginning to feel the holiday spirit!