A Pageant of Dubious Designs

What do time travel, Michael Jackson, the Beatles, and Civil rights all have in common?

Christmas, apparently. Or at least according to a "Christmas" pageant I saw recently, put on by a school.

Beginning with a little number by Bob Marley, featuring hoards of underage hippies, the pageant progressed to a company of skeletons performing "Thriller," followed by "We all live in a yellow submarine." After another number, this time featuring a racially charged civil rights representation (ok, so it was just kids dressed in white shouting "white!" in Spanish at kids dressed in black, who retorted, "Black!"), the protagonists (pre-teens from the future) discovered the origins of Christmas from their wise and companionable robot friend--but not before the (possibly loopy) producer managed to squeeze in a quick waltz.

Following that, our time-traveling tweens went back to that night in the manger and presented baby Jesus with a time capsule filled with various paraphernalia from the 20th century (still don't know how one time capsule was able to contain items representing events that took place throughout 20 or so year period...if you keep opening it up to add things, then it isn't a time capsule, is it? More like a closet where you store old junk you don't want lying around.

The grand finale was a series of disconnected poems, some having to do with Christmas, some not. All in all, the most confusing and befuddling representation of the Holiday I have ever witnessed. It may have been the closest I've ever been to experiencing a drug-trip since watching Disney's Fantasia.

I was sure to double-check my discombobulation with some native speakers, and was reassured that, even if I had understood all of the Spanish, I would probably have been more confused, not less.


I don't want to give the appearance that I am of the opinion that Spanish culture is utterly lacking when it comes to "keeping Christmas," as wrote Dickens, but I must say that that particular Christmas pageant definitely raised my skepticism to a new level.

My verdict is this: so far, Spain has some ground to cover before it can compete with more Germanic Christmas traditions.