--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, bob_brigante <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Friday Wall Street Journal > > http://tinyurl.com/vg74a > > "There's all this forced cheer at Christmastime that we're all so > sick of, so it makes sense that there's a rebellion," says Maud > Lavin, editor of "The Business of Holidays" and professor of visual > and critical arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. For > Ms. Lavin, the idea of a Bad Santa evokes photos of children sitting > on a mall employee's lap and crying hysterically in fear. "Of all the > things that were forced on us during the holidays, he's the one that > could actually be scary." > > Mo Donahue, owner of Party Crashers Entertainment in Minneapolis, got > the inspiration five years ago, when, in desperation, she hired an > unfamiliar actor for a holiday party. He showed up in a sulky, > unprofessional mood, and guests complained afterward that he wouldn't > even say "ho, ho, ho." "They kept referring to him as this surly > Santa," Ms. Donahue says. "And I thought, 'That could be a really > funny idea.'" > > In 2002, Ms. Donahue began offering a Bad Santa for singing telegrams > and party visits. It was slow to catch on the first year, she says, > but since then about one-third of her Santa bookings each holiday > season have been deliberately cranky characters. Her Bad Santa, whose > services start at $110 for 15 minutes, sings Christmas carols with > unprintable lyrics, breaks down in tears or perhaps throws gifts > across the room. Clients decide ahead of time how shocking they want > his behavior to be. The company also offers a "trophy bride" Mrs. > Claus in a fur-trimmed red minidress and a blond wig. "It has to be > the right crowd," says Ms. Donahue.
I TOTALLY LOVE CHRISTMAS BUT I CAN RELATE TO THIS. I was relieved to read that other families have fights over decorating the Christmas tree. I begged my kids to not fight this year blah blah, but after flipping a coin for who got to pick the tree this year etc I was singing to the tune of "rockin around the christmas tree" "fighting around the christmas tree have a rotten holiday" and to the tune of "I'll be home for christmas" "Buy me a gun for christmas, shoot me in the head blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, I wish that I were dead" I keep threatening to put coal in the stockings and buy myself a face lift instead of buying the kids presents, but i always cop out. >
