We don’t have popular “popular culture” any more but those old-time seasonal songs crossed all boundaries. The Mariah Carey, Placido Domingo, Reba McEntire, Motown, Bruce Springsteen, and Jessye Norman Christmas CDs all draw from the same limited repertoire - from “Winter Wonderland” to “Silver Bells”. In a time when radio stations are ever more narrowly programmed, these are the last songs we all share, and so they naturally run afoul of the hyphen-crazed segregationalists who insist that the only thing we have in common is our lack of anything in common. Even the PC schoolmarms understand that’s insufficient - hence the need to elevate “Imagine” to anthemic status in the communal songbook. I don’t want to live in John Lennon’s world without countries and religions - neither did he, in his more honest moments. But a wartime Christmas especially is a time to think about what binds us: If you feel “offended” by songs about snowmen and sleighs and donning one’s gay apparel, then maybe you’re the one with the problem. Imagine that.

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