STATUS UPDATES

A pre-holiday period in which the truth hurt and ‘Jingle Bells’ shocked

PRAISING WHITENESS:

A neighbourhood historical society in Boston, which apologized. A Dorchester Historical Society’s postcard promotion featured the phrase “We’re dreaming of a white Dorchester” along with a picture of a building in a snowglobe. A play on “White Christmas”? Maybe. But some were offended.

DEBUNKING:

A New Jersey substitute teacher. The perhaps-misguided educator told first-grade students that Santa Claus isn’t real. (No doubt based on something she found on Infowars …) The principal of the school in Montville apologized. It’s not clear whose job it was to reprogram the young minds.

ON CUE:

The prince in a Nutcracker performance. He had a special present for a ballerina during an interpretation of the holiday classic in Wichita, Kan. Allison Evans was playing the Dewdrop Fairy when her boyfriend dropped to one knee and proposed. About 40 or 50 friends and relatives were conveniently in attendance.

HUMAN KINDNESS:

By a man helping people in need fly to visit loved ones. Peter Shankman, a New York entrepreneur, is donating hundreds of thousands of air miles. It’s become an annual tradition, and now other travellers have seen his online posts and contributed their own points, for a total of 300,000 miles this year.

WELCOMING DIVERSITY:

Illinois, which included a satanic group’s statue in a display in a government building. Nestled between a Christmas tree and menorah, the statue features a snake coiled around an arm, holding an apple. It was sponsored by the Chicago chapter of the Temple of Satan.

DEJUNKING:

The Minneapolis police force. Two police officers hung, from a departmental tree, half-crushed cans of malt liquor, a cup from Popeyes and Newport cigarettes, the Washington Post reports. Critics denounced the trash as a racist insult about the Black community they serve. The cops were placed on leave.

OFF-KEY:

A video of two high school students singing to the tune of “Jingle Bells.” The New Hampshire school superintendent criticized the in-class performance. (“KKK, KKK, Let’s kill all the Blacks …”) The students’ assignment, on the Reconstruction period in U.S. history, was to pick a theme and create a song.

ANIMAL INSTINCT:

By reindeer, foxes and huskies in a Russian zoo. The Krasnoyarsk zoo in Siberia is renting out the creatures to locals who want to include them in their holiday festivities. “An experienced zookeeper” comes with the package, to parties, photo ops and visits to children by “Grandfather Frost.”