Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
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THE HOLIDAYS — When I was in sixth grade, my teacher was a year shy of retirement and exhausted of teaching her students all of the basic Christmas carols for the school's holiday program after several decades.
She did her time, she knew them all, she'd been an impromptu choir teacher to off-key children too long, and she was done.
So she said goodbye to "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas" and "Feliz Navidad" and instead put on a CD from a local band with a catchy Christmas album and had us learn the words. I loved the song and learned to belt it out by heart, but absentminded 11-year-old me couldn't remember the song or band's name to save my life. I Googled the lyrics half a dozen times, but never got a hit.
Nine years later, I was pleasantly surprised this Monday to receive a news tip from a local band called Eclipse 6 that they'd made a Christmas parody song for this holiday season.
Something in my memory stirred, and I wondered, "Could it be? ... "
After 45 minutes down a rabbit hole later, I found the song I'd been humming under my breath for nearly a decade. It was indeed a song by Eclipse 6, and it's called "This Year." I heard the first note of it and I knew I'd reconnected with my childhood, sang the entire verse alongside the music that I'd had stuck in my head forever, and I've been jamming out to their music ever since.
In short, this band has a special place in my heart. Beyond the nostalgia trip this story took me on, they've continued to make fun Christmas songs, and this year is no exception.
"Please Don't Cancel Christmas" is a heartwarming parody of The Eagle's "Please Come Home for Christmas" that encapsulates both the anxieties and hopes of the 2020 holiday season.
From the incorporation of local landmarks, like the Vivint Smart Home Arena in downtown Salt Lake City, to a gag involving how deeply a lack of haircuts has affected bald men, this music video is a fun local take on where Utah is right now. The exasperated and funny letter written to coronavirus is a lovely touch.
The background details are a joy — and the more times I rewatch the more I find — from the band members' kids in the background tiring them out or sword fighting over their heads to the snow on another member's glasses and hordes of toilet paper in what looks to the food storage section of the house.
So give this video a watch, let yourself smile, laugh, jam out and enjoy this wacky holiday season for all that it is.
As the band's message in the description reads: "This is our Christmas wish. This season it's kinda like wishing for a pony from Santa. However, knowing we won't be getting that pony doesn't make us not wish for it. This holiday season, be safe, be smart, be responsible. We'll be together soon. Merry Christmas!"
