Growing up, Carols in the Domain was something I looked forward to, it was fun but also brought joy and the true spirit of the festive season, they stuck to Christmas Carols and the performers all had charm and personality which made the night fun to watch plus the anchors did their job without trying to outshine those performing however its not gone unnoticed that especially in the past couple years that Carols in the Domain's quality has sunk to the point where the best fun to be had is on social media or after drinking two bottles of alcohol and be half way through a third.
So having watched the 2022 Carols in the Domain sober, I can no longer be benevolent to an event I adored as a child as last night felt less like an uplifting sharing of joy at Christmas time but an exercise in crass commercialism that tipped toward making the carols a two hours and twenty minute infommercial with breaks for Christmas carols and random songs that have absolutely nothing to do with Christmas but more to do with musical or Disney being advertised eg: the random cover of Katy Perry's "Firework" because it's like everybody sings "Do you ever feel like a plastic bag?" over Christmas lunch.
I didn't go to bed feeling happy, uplifted or joyful for Christmas, I went to bed feeling sad, angry and...exhausted, my head was swimming with Woolworths, Disney and Energiser emblazoned in my head...I shouldn't feel like that after Christmas carols for crying out. The irrelevant songs associated with musicals or worse the terrible decision to have a troupe of people singing in a blatant advert for Disney cruises at what is supposed to be CAROLS IN THE DOMAIN!
Add the endless advertorials for whar an amazing, wholesome company Woolworths is despite earlier this year being caught underpaying their own employees...give me a spell, it s apparent that Carols in the Domain is less about Christmas and more for the capitalism which is pretty gross.
Oh and Lets not even go into the bizarre decision to advertise Destination Canada and have a confused looking Shania Twain deliver what had to be one of the most awkward video messages of all time and have songs about winter Christmas in the Northern Hemisphere! Why can't Channel Seven and the organisers accept and love Australia's summer Christmas? I guess they just love the money from the advertising.
The other reason I felt sad is due to some of the performances. I discovered that in some cases I couldn't sing along because of the performer doing vocal gymnastics eg: Paulini, Samantha Jade (unnecessary when the songs are Christmas classics) or changing the arrangement the song is near unidentifiable, see the ridiculous soap opera version of Wham's "Last Christmas" that left me laughing out of bewilderment and thinking a small town is being powered by George Michael spinning in his grave.
Thrown in the Home & Away cast trying to unsuccessfully impersonate Bruno Mars while forgetting harmonising might be nice and The Wiggles trying to bring out Santa with a school athletics carnival cheer only to end up spelling out Satan after covering "Baby Shark" and adding verses in a thinly veiled attempt to convince nobody that it's a Christmas song.
"Happy Xmas (War is Over)" felt completely inappropriate at a time when the war in Ukraine is ongoing and an omnipresent thing in news cycles.
So all round, Carols in the Domain achieved crass commercialism not befitting of the Christmas season and left me realising my bra is uplifting me more than a night of Kochie in a bad Christmas suit, badly arranged Christmas carols or songs that aren't related to Christmas and corporate greed...way to kill the so called spirit of Christmas, I guess
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