Scrooge. Very possibly the most widely known Christmas villain. In his original work, Charles Dickens wrote Scrooge as a rich old white man, a member of the bourgeoisie, a brutal boss, and a Christmas hater. His character is stretched widely and his story portrayed in a mirage of different stories and films such as Elf as Buddy’s father and The Grinch himself. In the story, he is visited by three ghosts who help him to see his traumatic past, the ways his wealth hurts hurt him and others in the present, and a not so jolly future. These experiences seem to “radicalize” him by helping him to see his ways and thus change his behavior. What this story creates is a myth that is perpetuated in many Christmas films; a myth of magical redemption for the wealthy, that they can find kindness in their heart and by allowing their staff one holiday or a bonus or not treating people with violence, and then they are then good people whose wealth does not adversely affect the working-class people they were radicalized by. This myth of morality, that “good” members of the bourgeoisie can be exposed to the material conditions of the working class and then work in the interest of the working class rather than the ruling class is a trope perpetuated in many Christmas films, but in order to analyze them, both class and myth must be elaborated on.
In the media studies dictionary “Keywords for Media Studies”, Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Davis Laura Grindstaff’s entry focuses on class in media in two categories, class on screen as in media texts, and off-screen as in production spaces and viewing spaces. She speaks on how class is coded on-screen through “character, action, and narrative development” (Grindstaff, Keywords). Because of how class is inherently performed and performative through things like behavior and dress, these things can be manipulated in media texts to portray people of certain classes in certain ways. This can go both ways, as being powerful for social movements and the working class to create more accurate representations of social movements and material conditions of working-class people through media made by the people, as well as Hollywood and big movie companies creating untrue myths fabricating inaccurate stories of working-class characters that effectually create social stereotypes and barriers for real working-class people. Beretta Smith-Shomade speaks on class in specifically Black media in her book “Eyes Wide Shut: Capitalism, Class, and the Promise of Black Media” as something used to the advantage of the mass media “class disparities, rarely appear in visual culture — not in film, not on radio… and certainly not on mainstream television. When class conflict appears, it is generally in a television episode- a snippet of its actual existence- that quickly disappears and is almost always shown as humor” (Smith-Shomade, Eyes Wide Shut). An example of this is in Home Alone, where a child has forgotten at home alone while his wealthy family goes on vacation. His family is seen as careless for this and it is laughable, rather than a careless and thoughtless mistake that put the child in seriously great danger. Grindstaff references Richard Butsch’s 2015 piece “Six Decades of Social Class in American Television Sitcoms” as it appeared in Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Critical Reader. She references some stereotypes that he speaks on that are created from these untrue stories, such as working-class men being dumb and middle-class men being sensible and intelligent. Butsch also speaks in said piece about the individualism that class representation in media forces, rather than representing it correctly as a “structural phenomenon”.
These stereotypes of class in media are evident in many Christmas films, one example of which being Elf. Buddy is shown as a dumb, childlike, orphan who is taken in by a kind and loving boss (Santa) and then made an elf and made to work for Santa for the rest of his life until he is given the opportunity to go to New York to meet his biological father. His father is a scrooge character, a business executive in children’s book sales who has the Christmas film stamp of disapproval of being on Santas naughty list. Buddy’s father is very unkind to him, only allowing him to stay because of his wife’s pushing. A transformation happens for his father when he recognizes the ways that Buddy radicalized him morally, in his relationships with others, and in his relationship with Christmas. This trope perpetuates the myth of moral individualism making it possible for the bourgeoisie to work in the interests of the working class, whereas, in reality, this myth is untrue and undermines the material truth that class is a part of state capitalism which cannot be abolished by individual action but rather other by the revolution of the working class and mass creation of polylithic media made by working-class people with an accurate representation of all experiences and conditions of the working class.
Jonathan Bignell, Professor of Television and Film at the University of Reading, states it best in the first sentences of his entry in Keywords for Media Studies “Myth in media analysis refers to how words and images are systematically used to communicate cultural and political meanings, in texts such as advertisements, magazines, films, or TV programs. Studying myth uses the methodology of semiotics (Bignell 2002), which proposes that our perception and understanding of reality is constructed by words and other signs, hence my reference to media products as “texts” (Bignell, Keywords). There are an infinite amount of myths that are well received and well believed, many of which have to do with holidays such as Christmas. “Myth is not an innocent language. Each myth has a social and political message, which always involves the distortion or forgetting of alternative messages so that a myth appears to be simply true, rather than one of many alternatives” (Bignell).
Santa himself has been bastardized by capitalism into a myth of a fat jolly man who brings Ferbies and hot wheels until children are old enough to recognize his illegitimacy when “Santa” was once a real man named St. Nicolas who dates back to the third century and was deemed by his people to be the patron saint of children. His death would be celebrated with a feast on December 6th each year. This tradition was brought to America in the 18th century by Dutch families who kept the tradition alive. In the 19th century, it was corrupted into the current Santa form by the emergence of media texts such as ‘The Night Before Christmas” also called “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement Clarke Moore and advertising for Christmas shopping and bell-ringing Salvation Army Santas created the myth of the “Mall Santa”, properly alienating St. Nick from his roots and corrupting the myth with capitalism (history.com, History of Santa).
Myth is inherently political, and therefore ideological. For example, a convertible car signifies both wealth and fun and creates the myth that convertible cars are expensive and will bring you joy. This is similar to Christmas myths which are created by the signifiers in Christmas Films such as having a billion films about falling in love on Christmas creating the myth that Christmas is an inherently romantic holiday. The French theorist Roland Barthes published the book “Mythologies” in 1957, the last essay of which is titled ‘Myth Today” and in it, he says this “What must always be remembered is that myth is a double system; there occurs in it a sort of ubiquity: its point of departure is constituted by the arrival of a meaning” (Barthes, Mythology). Myth is strong because it is unquestioned. It is thought of as fact rather than analyzed for truth because at which point it is, it is also dissolved. It is known that myth is not the truth, but because it is not questioned it is seen as so. And this can be dangerous for human culture, to accept things as they are and to allow mass media to do so as well.
Kathleen Battles writes in “Consumption, Class, and Gender in the Made for TV Holiday Movie” hosted by Flowjournal “Steeped in romance, and chock full of those conservative, hetero-patriarchal values that made Eve Sedgwick refer to the Christmas season as that time when our social institutions speak in one voice, holiday made-for-TV movies consistently emphasize heterosexual coupling and traditional family life as the key to happiness for women” (Battles, Consumption). The myth of the nuclear family is only reinforced and made lamer during the Christmas season and in Christmas media. By making a million movies about a woman finding a man to marry and start a family with on Christmas, we are reinforcing for teenage girls and young women that their Christmas wishes should not be to enjoy the joy of community but rather to be worried about when they will find their own (possibly literal) Christmas prince.
Another myth of Christmas that is forced by mass media through Christmas films is that the majority of human people celebrate Christmas. This is simply untrue. There are many many more holidays in Winter than Christmas such as Ashura, Bodhi Day, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa, but very little representation in media of these holidays. The representation that does exist is often bad, such as in the 2012 film “All I Want Is Christmas”. In this film, the main character is a young Jewish boy who is jealous of a person who gets to experience the joys of Christmas and tries to switch places with him. This film plays on the stereotype that Christmas is more fun or more popular than Hanukkah, which only strengthens the myth of Christmas supremacy. This debate of the “war on Christmas” is constantly in the media, a cultural debate between the “politically correct” and the “traditional”. This myth of Christmas supremacy upholds capitalism and is classist, racist, holiday colonialism. Without media that is created by the working class for the working class, Christmas films will always uphold the interests of the media owning class.
A very different and less political subsection of Christmas myths that Christmas films have been made about are Christmas villain myths. There are many horror Christmas films, many of which are based on myth. One example is the 2015 film “Krampus”, which is based on is an old German oral myth of a monster that beats bad children on Christmas and takes them to the underworld. I suppose this myth could be helpful for parents trying to keep their young children from misbehaving, but it also has cultural implications that go with the general acceptance of myths. Because it answers the moral question of do people deserve kindness when they are unkind, it enforces individualism and transactional relationships and giving gifts and kindness only to those who “deserve” it. It also probably really scared some young children whose parents used it to be manipulative and hold control over their children.
Thankfully and wonderfully, there are examples of radical Christmas films. A very notable one being the 2015 film “Tangerine”. Not only was this film shot on Iphone making it incredibly accessible to be made by just about anyone, but it also tells the stories of two trans sex workers and their experience one Christmas Eve. The story is one that does not focus on Christmas or the tropes of Christmas, but rather the events that happen that Christmas Eve, the stories of the individuals, their relationships with others, and their relationship with the holiday. Genuine experiences of trans sex workers are highlighted such as police harassment, and relationships between pimps, clients, and sex workers. It is also a comedy, both lighthearted and full-bodied. It tells the full story and shows the growth of the people in a way that isn’t connected to unrealistic love such as a Hallmark Christmas film and is not tied up with a pretty bow at the end. The material conditions of the characters are not magically fixed by the magic of Christmas, but rather the characters experience a holiday and the ways that holiday affects the people in their life, and the audience has an opportunity to relate to that. There is no myth in this film, as there is nothing to lie about. There is nothing to sell, other than maybe truth. Just a story to tell.
Citations:
“20 Essential Movie and TV Scrooges Through the Years, From Alastair Sim to Bill Murray (Photos).” Accessed December 17, 2020. https://www.thewrap.com/20-essential-best-scrooge-movie-tv-christmas-carol-alastair-sim-bill-murray/.
Beretta Smith-Shomade. “Eyes Wide Shut: Capitalism, Class, and the Promise of Black Media,” n.d.
“Bloody Disgusting’s Massive Guide to Over 120 Christmas Horror Films — Bloody Disgusting.” Accessed December 17, 2020. https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3595830/bloody-disgustings-massive-guide-holiday-horror/.
Brayton, Sean. “Courtship and Class Conflict in Hallmark’s ‘Countdown to Christmas.’” Feminist Media Studies 0, no. 0 (February 10, 2020): 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2020.1723675.
“Consumption, Class, and Gender in the Made-For-TV Holiday Movie Kathleen Battles / Oakland University — Flow.” Accessed December 17, 2020. https://www.flowjournal.org/2015/01/made-for-tv-holiday-movie/.
“December Religious Holidays: It’s The Most Wonderfully Holy Time Of The Year | HuffPost.” Accessed December 17, 2020. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/december-religious-holidays_n_1126507.
Editors, History com. “History of Christmas.” HISTORY. Accessed December 3, 2020. https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas.
HuffPost. “It’s The Most Wonderfully Holy Time Of The Year,” 23:24 500. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/december-religious-holidays_n_1126507.
Rodriguez-Plate, S. Brent. “What Makes Christmas Movies so Popular.” The Conversation. Accessed November 19, 2020. http://theconversation.com/what-makes-christmas-movies-so-popular-127972.
“‘The Most Wonderful Time of the Year’: Christmas Classics Old and NewKathleen Loock / University of Flensburg — Flow.” Accessed December 3, 2020. https://www.flowjournal.org/2019/11/christmas-classics-old-and-new/.
“There Are 15 Christmas Prince Movies And I Watched Them All.” Accessed December 17, 2020. https://www.buzzfeed.com/jennaguillaume/the-definitive-ranking-of-royalty-themed-christmas-movies.
VanDerWerff, Emily. “Why Hallmark Christmas Movies Are so Popular, Explained by 2 Days at ChristmasCon.” Vox, December 12, 2019. https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/12/12/20984832/hallmark-christmas-movies-2019-christmascon-deck-the-hallmark.
“Why We Love Bad Christmas Movies | HuffPost Life.” Accessed December 17, 2020. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-love-bad-christmas-movies_l_5fc5517dc5b66bb88c697abe.
