A Carol for Another Christmas was adapted for television by Rod Serling, the creator of the Twilight Zone and premiered in 1964, the same year that Dr. Strangelove: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and Fail Safe were released. It was produced to support the United Nations and directed by Joseph Mankiewicz, who at the time had just directed Cleopatra.

Air your Festivus Grievances in the comments!

I’ve been listening to a radio station that’s playing a good number of the pop and rock versions of Christmas carols, the kind that were all the rage on the AM dial in late ‘50s and early ‘60s. There is something innocent about these Cold War-era songs. Bing Crosby’s hit, “Do You Hear What I Hear,” was written in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis. At Christmas, we could carol a crisis away.

Of course, when not listening to these songs recently I’m covered in contemporary tales of armed schoolhouses and political cliffs of different kinds.

Who knew Ole Saint Nicolas was a militant vegetarian?

Laura Burhenn is a singer, who has a music project called The Mynabirds. In November 2010, she released a song called, “All I Want is Truth (for Christmas).”

It puts into words a world development that has become increasingly clear: climate change means having a merry Christmas without snow.

Bob Dorough is a cool bepop, jazz pianist and singer, who collaborated with jazz legend Miles Davis to produce, “Blue Xmas (To Whom It May Concern).” He is known for working with Allen Ginsberg and he also once performed in between Lenny Bruce sets.

The song may not be as much of a protest song as previous selections featured this week, however, its lyrics have an anti-commercialism theme.

Pull Up A Chair and say Hey Ya!

With December 25th just on the other side of the coming weekend, I suppose it’s fair to ask (for those of you who celebrate the holiday): Do you have all of your Christmas shopping done yet?

Not so fast… are you sure? Have you forgotten any of our favorite Washington, DC, political figures who, although they might be doing much better than you or me financially, might really need a particular gift this holiday season?

Here’s a partial list that I came up with, based on the news of recent days

The song became a “serious song lamenting the fact that Christmas had moved away from being a season of goodwill and peace on earth to all men to being about commerciality.”

Legendary folk singer and songwriter Woody Guthrie wrote a song called the “1913 Massacre” about a a tragedy believed to have taken place on December 24, 1913, in the Italian Hall in Calumet, Michigan. Hundreds of striking copper miners and their families were in the Hall for a Christmas party when someone shouted, “Fire!”