Santa cartoons about more than reindeer
Christmas tales raise important questions
Every December, my family settles in to watch our favorite animated holiday classics like “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Rudolph the RedNosed Reindeer.” After many repeat viewings, I’ve noticed a pattern in the holiday high jinks: Their stories are really about social status, class struggles, identity politics and capitalism.
This year, especially, the themes running through these yuletide yarns seem to echo those peppering many a presidential campaign.
I’ll let you interpret which candidates might be represented by which cartoon, but here is what I’ve gleaned: All of these cartoons offer up main characters who are exiled from their communities, be it through choice or duress. In each case, these festive fellows are faced with a stark choice: social conformity or isolation.
Each December I teach a three-week course at DePaul University called “Bah Humbug! Analyzing Christmas Media Texts.” What really gets my students feisty is a Marxist interpretation of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” It seems on the surface like a heartwarming tale about not judging people by their appearance (even if they have a shiny nose), but it’s also a study of class conflicts, labor-management struggles and the fight for decent benefits.
Hermey the elf fails in his workplace role doing manual labor on the toymaking assembly line and is denied his wish to become a dentist. Yet the North Pole clearly has an optometrist, given how we see one elf wearing glasses. Why is one form of health care provided to elf employees while others are neglected? Is it because you need to see properly to make toys but you don’t need any teeth?
Rudolph’s red nose is considered a detriment and a disability until it suddenly solves Santa’s unsafe working conditions one foggy Christmas Eve. The Abominable Snowman is finally made welcome in Santa’s village because he is the only one who can put the star on top of the Christmas tree — once he has unique labor potential, in other words, he becomes a useful part of North Pole society.
Unchecked capitalism
It’s also a cautionary tale about letting capitalism go unchecked, as Sam the snowman sings about silver and gold: “How do you measure its worth? Just by the pleasure it gives here on earth.” Similarly, Charlie Brown sighs when his sister, Sally, asks Santa for tens and twenties, while all Lucy really wants for Christmas is real estate. Even the Grinch realizes in the end that Christmas is about more than just stuff.
Christmas cartoons, then, have a lot to tell us about how we understand culture and ideology. But I can understand why some viewers might prefer to skip such readings and stick to the surface, especially in a year as politically fractured as this one.
Douglas Coupland, author of “Generation X,” once said that “Christmas makes everything twice as sad.” And I do warn my students that in studying these beloved shows, they might indeed find themselves robbed of the ability to simply savor them for their nostalgic values and their seeming innocence. But that’s only if they don’t learn to appreciate the potential intellectual rewards in studying any and all media representations more closely.
‘OK boomer’
All of these shows debuted in the 1960s and have been aired annually ever since. Their messages have endured even as cultural change has rendered so many other values and beliefs from that era obsolete.
Younger generations might mutter “OK boomer” about many ideas spawned five decades ago, and admittedly I did have to explain to my kids how midcentury-modern décor trends were behind why the Peanuts gang coveted aluminum trees over real ones.
Even so, these shows continue asking the same questions, decade after decade, about some of our most important concerns, like whether capitalism offers all the answers about what society should value. In 2020, these questions will help determine who many voters will cast a ballot for.
While so many of our favorite holiday programs seem like simple morality plays to be enjoyed by young and old alike, their timeless success is due in no small part to the deeper cultural layers embedded within. So, as you wade through one of the most politically divided holiday seasons in many a Christmas Eve, try channeling your inner Grinch (thrice-enlarged-heart version), misfit and/or blockhead as you weigh what’s most important to you and your family in the new year.
Blair Davis, a Public Voices Fellow with the OpEd Project, is an associate professor of media and cinema studies at DePaul University, director of its graduate program in communication and media, and author of four books on film and media history. WANT TO COMMENT? Have Your Say at letters@usatoday.com, @usatodayopinion on Twitter and facebook.com/usatodayopinion. Comments are edited for length and clarity. Content submitted to USA TODAY may appear in print, digital or other forms. For letters, include name, address and phone number. Letters may be mailed to 7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, VA, 22108.