Every
year my family like many others sit and watch Carols in the Domain (we watched
the cricket when Channel 7 went to one of their many ad breaks through the
evening) but instead of singing along, I spent most of the night cringing or
totally bewildered.
Firstly
the start time was in no way family friendly. 8:36pm on a Sunday? Come on. Yes,
the children in Sydney have finished school for the year but there are adults
who do have to work the next day and given it finished after 11pm most people
were looking at around midnight to 1am before they got home with sleepy and
cranky children, fair chance it might have been 1:30am or 2:30am before they
got to bed.
The
2nd issue with the start time of the event is many of the young children were
asleep before Santa hit the stage and spent all of three minutes on stage which
was either just before or after 9pm because Channel Seven turned Santa’s
arrival into a Home and Away style mini epic where by Santa went surfing and
ended up in Melbourne because apparently David Koch couldn’t organise it for
Santa to arrive in Sydney…seriously? Children aren’t stupid, Channel 7! The
children just wanted to see Santa before they went to bed so if the carols are
going to start late at least kick it off with the childrens segment and let the
kids see Santa for longer than 3 minutes.
Also
was it necessary to have four hosts? Either Sam and Kochie or Mark and Nat.
Channel Nine suffice with Lisa Wilkinson and David Campbell for the whole night
as hosts of Carols by Candlelight.
Surely
starting the show at 7:45pm or 8pm so children can see Santa, cutting out the
nonsense about Santa’s arrival, giving Santa longer on stage than the two
Disney guests would have been a better go than disappointing thousands of
children and their parents and leave them hoping Seven show a replay at a more
family friendly hour.
The
next issue, the cross promotions through out the coverage which led to songs
that aren’t even remotely about Christmas being song in order to promote a
Disney film called Moana and Jessica Mauboy singing Alex Lloyd’s “Amazing” in
order to promote her The Secret Daughter soundtrack, this kind of thing only
adds to the sentiment many people are feeling that Christmas is becoming
overcommercialised and has lost its meaning in the important ways like the fact
Christmas is celebrated by Christians due to the birth of Jesus.
You
can have sponsors and all that but when they impinge on the enjoyment of the
event and in effect made the whole Carols in the Domain concert seem tacky, it
really did make for a lot of cringing and horror through out the evening. I was
fully expecting Channel 7 had rounded up a bunch of Woolworths employees to
sing the “Woolworths the fresh food people” song. Put it this way, its not
councils or politicians ruining Christmas, it’s the overcommercialisation of
Christmas that is killing it.
7
Network can hardly use their programs to accuse councils of being grinches when their carols are lost
in ads for Disney films and Woolworths ham bargains. Please. We need to bring back the true meaning of Christmas into the Carols in the Domain not this overcommercialisation of Silent Night or Hark the Herald Angels Sing.
Finally
the song selection. “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire” shouldn’t be sung in
Australia, it is not relevant to Christmas time in Australia especially in the
midst of summer, there’s a couple of songs that were sung that really bare no
relevance to Christmas in Australia, then there was that gospel song “Are You
ready for a Miracle?” performed by Paulini while it’s a good song, it doesn’t
exactly fit the Christmas bill because it’s actually all about the work Jesus *allegedly*
(not everyone believes he performed those miracles after all) did and not about
Christmas, maybe a song like “Do You
hear what I hear” is a better fit.
Also
stick to the traditional melodies and tunes, I found I couldn’t sing along because the
melody had changed eg: Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer is generally a very upbeat
near close to pop tune so it was annoying to find it had been slowed down to
such an extent as it is every single damn year.
Dump
the cross promotional songs that don’t have any fit with Christmas, last I
checked there’s no Christmas theme with Moana or with the Alex Lloyd song “Amazing”.
Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Jesus, giving gifts and being with
family and friends not Woolworths bargins and Disney promotions (I won’t go
into what a friends children think Christmas is about now). The issue is NOT about the talent, its about the song list chosen.
Finally as for the theme of "Christmas Traditions", pointless having it if its not going to be traditional in any sense in terms of the songs and the overt promotion of things that have little relevance to Christmas or the meaning of the celebration.
In
short for 2017, Carols in the Domain should follow this checklist:
- · Earlier start time so it can be family friendly.
- · Have the children’s portion of the show when the children are alert and awake (closer to the start)
- · Have Santa on longer. You don’t need Mickey and Minnie Mouse on stage. Santa is enough with whoever is performing
- · Stick to traditional Christmas melodys so everyone can sing along. Useless giving people the lyrics if they can’t sing along
- · Keep the sponsors but ditch the promotional non Christmas stuff eg: trailers for Disney films are so unnecessary when the carols are about Christmas and not Walt Disney or Woolworths
- · Two hosts instead of four.
- Stick to Christmas carols on the song set.
