Colored Lights Pretty
A friend suggested I write a Christmas song, so you can blame him for this.
For kids in America who are not Christian – and even for some who are – Christmas can be both delightful and confusing.
How can a child not love the pretty colored lights and pretty songs?
But how can such a deeply religious holiday be burdened with so many very non religious trappings?
I particularly loved Christmas, as it filled the vacuum left by my parents emphatically secular way of being Jewish.
Which included the annual ritual of Christmas tree and presents, a clear and fond memory.
And on top of all of it rides another holiday memory; that of my father dying on the eve of Christmas eve in 1970.
Maybe it's all complicated, maybe it's all very simple.
Colored lights pretty decorate houses,
Something special is going on,
Colored lights twinkling all over town,
And that’s what a Jewish American kid
Knows of American Christmas.
Angelic songs on the radio,
Something special must be afoot,
Silent night and Joy to the World,
That’s what a Jewish American kid,
Knows of American Christmas.
When people bring trees into their houses
Gotta be something special for sure,
Brightly wrapped presents under the trees,
That’s what a Jewish American kid knows
Of American Christmas.
But people are fighting with fists in the stores,
Clear that something’s not normal,
They’re fighting for presents to give to their children,
That’s what a Jewish American kid,
Learns of American Christmas.
Someone named Jesus who lived long ago,
With a message of love - does anyone follow?
This holiday has something to do with his birth,
That’s what a Jewish atheist kid,
Learns of American Christmas.
And that’s what a Hindu American kid.
Learns of American Christmas.
That’s what a Muslim American kid
Learns of American Christmas.
That’s what a Bhuddist American kid,
Learns of American Christmas.
That’s what a Christian American kid,
Learns of American Christmas.
That’s what any American kid,
Learns of American Christmas.