Our Comedy of Christmas
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| Santa and horned crew look in need of some blow. They waited two weeks for fulfillment. I tell you. |
SO A LOCAL reader
took umbrage to my referring to Santa as “Crazy” in my last post, “Our Carnival
of Christmas” (Read post).
Well it’s not like he’s Jesus the Christ,
right. Hey, I love the concept of Santa (I actually know the history behind
him), and would encourage people to walk in that spirit of the Big Guy’s
generosity and boisterous good will all year round.
It was not Santa himself (whomever that
is) I was calling Crazy, but sizing up the way that the more commercialised characteristics
of today’s Christmas seem to delight in making the icon more jokey than jolly.
I’m Santa, because
These inflatable presentations of St. Nick
(yep, that’s the way you revere a saint: make a blow-up doll out of ’im) are –
aren’t they? – meant to be laughable.
But home here, there is a certain edge to the irreverence, produced perhaps by
the fact that quite a bit of Trinis do things in what we call a donkyeredam manner (the translation is
simple: “don’t care a damn”).
When someone does a slipshod job of
setting up a Santa display; or even intentionally does a botchy job with a
wink-wink, grin-grin, say no more in tow, there are people who act like it’s
actually Santa right there, and we befuddled masses should bend a knee, bow our
head, or rend our Christmas stockings. Like it’s Santa because they say so!
Jolly good blow
It’s not Santa, it’s a balloon shaped like
Santa, my friends. Besides, that ho-ho-hoing, drop in-loving, eating food at
every house he visits guy that they make Santa out to be, would love our Trinbago waggishness. In fact,
what I just said makes Santa sound pretty Trini
to de bone, already.
And all that hot air inside those inflated
Santa’s is equal to the comedic hot air that most Trinis can gust up when we gather to have a good time. We have fun. It’s. What. We. Do.
Let’s pay homage to my people’s lighter
side of approach to many things Christmas ... which, don’t be fooled, we love.
Shine on
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| Everything seems copacetic here. But look closer. What are those things that the snowman's holding, and how? Drive-by Frosty? |
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| What in the name of jingle bells is Santa doing to Rudolph? Awkward! |
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| The reflection clearly shows a public street; and this is what the public saw when they looked in this large downtown clothing store: Mannequin Macabre. |
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| This woman saw it, too: how naughty that reindeer seems giving Santa a look askance. Planning his getaway from animal bondage, perhaps. Those wreaths be shackles, man! ALL PHOTOS BY JHAYE-Q BAPTISTE |
