Green Chri$tma$ | Christmas themed Wishes
Green Chri$tma$ is a piece of audio theater written and performed by Stan Freberg and Daws Butler, released by Capitol Records in 1958 (catalog number F 4097). Mr. Scrooge (Freberg), the head of an unnamed advertising agency, has gathered a group of clients to discuss tying their products into Christmas. One attendee, Bob Cratchit (Butler), wants to resist tying his spice company into Christmas, preferring to send Christmas cards with a simple message of “Peace on Earth.” Scrooge extols the virtues of making money off of Christmas, and Cratchit counters by reminding Scrooge “whose birthday we’re celebrating.”
The piece is a scathing indictment of the commercialization of Christmas, with references of Christmas-themed advertising by Coca-Cola and Chesterfield Cigarettes, among others. The names of the characters are taken from A Christmas Carol In Prose by Charles Dickens, as is one of the products “advertised” (”Tyn-E-Tim Chestnuts”). Green Chri$tma$ also contains a parody of the Christmas carol The Twelve Days Of Christmas and an original song by Freberg, Christmas Comes But Once A Year.
Of especially noteworthy importance is the impact of this song’s message in the heart of corporate America, as reflected in the fact that it received no commercial AM radio airplay until 1983; only getting a little FM airplay before that (such as on the Doctor Demento Show) and only slightly more AM airtime after 1983. Beginning in 1972, Capitol reissued the single as catalog number 3503, dividing the piece into two parts; it remained in the Christmas singles section of record stores for years thereafter.
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